Florida Criminal Law Blog

Often times it is necessary, in the right type of case, to contact the victim/witness simply to develop a relationship with them and obtain their version of events. In some cases where the evidence of guilt of the client is overwhelming it may be wise to make amends on your client's behalf. In some instances an offer to pay restitution immediately may have a positive effect on your client's case. (An offer to pay restitution or an apology, even through an attorney, may be used as an admission of guilt in some instances).

Although there is no ethical rule in Florida that disallows an attorney from contacting a witness outside of the prosecutors presence in a criminal case it is a good idea if an attorney contacts such a witness that there be a witness to his or her conversation with the complaining witness. This is not only because if the witness were to say something inconsistent later, the other person could testify to the inconsistent statement of the complaining witness but also to protect the attorney from any claim of improper influencing by the person being interviewed. The American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice expressly charges defense counsel to have a third party present at a witness interview or the defense attorny runs the risk of forgoing proper impeachments should that witness change their testimoney at a later hearing: “Unless the lawyer for the accused is prepared to forego impeachment of a witness by the lawyer's own testimony as to what the witness stated in an interview or to seek leave to withdraw from the case inorder to present his impeaching testimony, the lawyer should avoid
interviewing a prospective witness except in the presence of a third person." ABA Project on Standards for Criminal Justice, Standards Relating to the Prosecution Function and Defense Function. A 7- 4.3(d) (Approved Draft 1971).

This contact with the complaining witness can be extremely helpful in the right case. In a death penalty I had several years ago in Pensacola, I had developed a non-adversarial relationship with the father of the victim by the time the case went to trial. By getting to know him and what he had gone through in losing his daughter, I was better able to understand his pain and see things through his eyes. This changed how I perceived of the case in a way that was beneficial to my client. The same thing occurred on a recent very serious aggravated assault with a firearm. I had repeated very cordial contacts with the victims and I was the primary person giving them information about what was going on procedurally with the case. Both cases had very successful outcomes for the client.

Generally, the defense attorney has the opportunity to have much more contact with complaining witnesses than do busy prosecutors. In fact, new, generally non-lawyer specialists in criminal cases have come about called "Mitigation Specialists." I do not know of anyone in Pensacola who is actually a mitigation specialist; however, in certain cases I have hired people from other states to come to Florida to work. There are people who specialize in mitigation in Florida as well. These are people who develop relationships with victims, witnesses and obtain information that mitigates against harsh punishment in cases. A mitigation specialist is not necessary in most cases; in most cases the attorney and his or her staff possibly along with an investigator can develop these relationships that will ultimately make it more likely to resolve the client's case more favorably and also make the victim's experience with the criminal justice system more positive and less threatening resulting in both a benefit to the client and the victim/witness.

In Pensacola, as elsewhere in Florida, once a law enforcement agency arrests a person the paperwork is then forwarded to the State Attorney's Office (prosecutor's office) to determine what formal charges should actually be filed. An arrest by the police is not a "formal charge," it is merely an arrest based upon probable cause determined by the individual police officer. Formal charges are decided by and formally filed by the prosecutor's office.

Florida Prosecutors' Offices, including Pensacola and the First Judicial Circuit, which encompasses Milton, Ft. Walton, Shalimar, Crestview and Destin, often file criminal charges without having the time to conduct a thorough investigation of the facts of a case. This is not uncommon; most prosecutors offices throughout Florida have a tremendous volume of cases and don't have unlimited investigatory resources. This requires them to rely on law enforcement agencies who's investigators are sometimes merely interested in clearing an arrest. All it takes for an arrest is "probable cause." "He said, she said" is enough to get a person arrested even for the most serious of charges. A case that addresses what obligations an investigating officer has to make a probable cause determination is City Of St. Petersburg v. Austrino, 898 So.2d 955 (Fla. 2 DCA 2005). After the paperwork from the investigating officer reaches the prosecutor's office, the prosecutor in some cases will subpoena the complaining witness come to their office to provide a statement to them. If the statement appears to be credible, they will file formal charges. Sometimes these decisions are made without knowing all the facts of the case or the motivations of the witness who provided them a statement. The State simply doesn't have the resources to investigate charges at a deeper level. Unfortunately, this procedure sometimes results in innocent people being subjected to the stressors and expenses of being a defendant in a criminal case and perhaps even going through the frightening experience of a jury trial where the fate of their lives rests in the hands of other people: a group of six or twelve strangers called a jury.

I believe it is often necessary for a defense attorney to attempt to educate the prosecutor about facts not known to them in an attempt to not to file formal charges based upon what law enforcement has arrested an individual for. However, an attorney must be careful not to advocate facts without being very confident of what those facts are; to do so the attorney runs the risk of losing all credibility with the prosecutor. The cases in which the defense attorney contacts the State to negotiate prior to the filing of formal charges must be limited to those where the defense attorney knows the facts. I do not call the prosecutor prior to formal charges being filed on certain cases. However, not to attempt to negotiate with the State on the right case would not be doing everything possible for the client.

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