Articles Posted in Orange County

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Florida v. Harris, a case originating in Calhoun County circuit court. At issue was whether a K-9’s alert could establish probable cause for a warrantless search of a car. Under review was the Florida Supreme Court’s opinion that a K-9 alert could establish probable cause–but only after the Government produced a long litany of evidence during the suppression hearing to support the reliability of the K-9’s training. The U.S. Supreme Court Justices, in a unanimous decision, disagreed with this exhaustive checklist, ruling it was inconsistent with a common sense approach to probable cause. Aldo, the drug-sniffing dog at the center of the case, was deemed reliable by the trial court and ultimately, the highest court upheld Mr. Harris’ conviction for possessing pseudoephedrine for use in manufacturing methamphetamine.

In this case, an officer with a canine partner stopped a truck for a minor traffic violation, and sensed that the driver might be on drugs. Because the truck’s driver refused to let the officer search the truck, the officer led Aldo around the exterior of the vehicle. The dog made movements that showed he smelled something suspicious on the driver-side door handle. Taking that as a signal that drugs were inside the truck, the officer checked out the interior, and found a stash of drug-making equipment.

Law Enforcement across Florida utilize trained dogs for a variety of law-enforcement tasks, including investigation in potential drug-trafficking cases. Dogs can be trained to react, by specific kinds of movements, sometimes called an alert, when they smell an odor that emanates from a stash of drugs. What is important to understand is that K-9s do not smell drugs; they smell odors. When they show that they have picked up the scent, that usually leads the police officers to follow up with a search to see if drugs are, in fact, present in such a spot. Normally, police can use a drug-sniffing dog without having to get a search warrant from a judge–especially if the officers are in the field and having to get a warrant would frustrate the investigation.

The impact of this ruling will be minimal, as it maintains the status quo in Florida. The Florida Supreme Court’s ruling that was under review was in direct opposition to the law in 48 other states on this issue, and this opinion essentially aligns Florida with the rest of the United States. One upside for defendants is that the Supreme Court also held that the accused must have the opportunity in court to challenge the dependability of the training evidence and to test whether the police handler might have “cued” the dog to make an alert. Thus, the bottom line of the ruling was that the dog does not always win, if the accused individual can undercut its training record.

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An Orlando doctor accused of hosting wild sex and drug parties at his Hunter’s Creek home pleaded guilty to a slew of criminal charges Monday in exchange for 10 years in prison.

The 57-year-old man was arrested in October 2010 by the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation as part of a crackdown on doctors who were overprescribing highly addictive drugs, such as the painkiller oxycodone.

The MBI claims their initial investigation eventually lead to the doctor being charged with more than a dozen crimes, ranging from racketeering to drug charges to insurance fraud.

Agents allegedly interviewed several women who claim they became addicted to oxycodone after being prescribed the drug by the Orlando physician.

One woman apparently told agents that she was invited to one of the doctor’s parties during her third office visit. Another woman alleges the doctor paid her daughter to be videotaped wearing lingerie.

A search of the physician’s home apparently yielded more than 1,400 oxycodone tablets, cocaine, handguns, more than $37,000 and an electronic money counter.

The doctor pleaded guilty to several crimes on Monday, including trafficking in oxycodone, purchasing prostitution and patient brokering.

Prosecutors with the State Attorney’s office informed the court that the doctor used his practice to purchase oxycodone and other drugs, which he prescribed to women who became addicted.

The doctor is also accused of trying to hide money from law enforcement by transferring money into several different bank accounts.

Without the plea agreement, the physician could have faced 156 years in prison.

Recently, the state of Florida has started pursuing doctors in their efforts to combat prescription drug crimes. In these “pill mill” operations, law enforcement officers focus on investigating physicians they believe are distributing prescriptions to addicts or healthy patients who do not need prescription drugs. In addition to prison time and steep fines, medical professionals charged with prescription drug crimes run the risk of losing their license, careers and reputation.

Physicians and other medical professionals can be slapped with various prescription drug charges as a result of state and federal crackdowns, including:

• Incorrectly Documenting Patient History
• Over-Prescribing Pills
• Not Checking Patient Records for Previous Incidents of “Doctor Shopping”
• Prescribing Unnecessary Medications
As part of the war on drugs, the government prosecutes those believed to be pushing pain pills quite harshly. Trafficking in oxycodone carries severe mandatory minimum prison sentences. While oxycodone trafficking carries a maximum prison term of 30 years, a mandatory minimum sentence can range from 3 to 25 years in prison depending on the amount found in your possession.

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