West Palm Beach Criminal Lawyer Blog : Ronald Chapman: West Palm Beach Criminal Lawyer | Florida Criminal Attorney: DUI, Assault & Battery, Felonies | Criminal Law Firm

The following article appeared in the April 30, 2008 edition of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Ron Chapman represented and obtained a favourable outcome for the defendant Ramirez.
 

By Nancy L. Othon
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
April 30, 2008

Two men who were racing cars and driving drunk when their friend was killed last year after a house party in Boca Raton received what a judge called the 'deal of a lifetime' Wednesday and were sentenced to one year in the Palm Beach County Jail after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter.
Just days away from hitting their 21st birthdays, Jhonathan Ramirez, of Miami, and Matthew Swaney, of Boynton Beach, were immediately taken into custody to begin serving their yearlong sentence. They each faced a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted of DUI manslaughter.

Circuit Judge Krista Marx warned the men that she would not hesitate to send either man to prison if they slip up during the 15 years of probation both men must serve, even if a probation violation is a technicality. She also said the defendant's attorneys got them a 'rare deal' that she hoped they were worthy of receiving.

Marx accepted the plea agreement despite an emotional argument from victim David Martin's mother, Bonne Martin of Boynton Beach, who told Marx that her only son's life was worth far more than a year in jail.

'I'm actually begging you to not go along with the plea, judge,' Martin said, shaking.

David Martin, 20, had gone to a party in Boca Raton along with Ramirez and Swaney on Feb. 17, 2007, when all three friends drank and smoked marijuana, according to police reports. Martin was a passenger in Swaney's car when Swaney lost control of his car on Clint Moore Road and hit a tree. Martin was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash.

Witnesses told police Swaney and Ramirez were racing each other. All three men had blood-alcohol levels of 0.10 percent and had marijuana in their system at the time of the crash, prosecutor Ellen Roberts said. The legal alcohol limit in Florida is 0.08 percent.

'I can't even begin to fathom your pain,' Marx told Martin. 'I cannot be more sorry for your loss.'

But Marx accepted the plea, telling Martin that Roberts is one of the toughest vehicle homicide prosecutors in the state and that she had the utmost confidence in all of the attorneys involved in the case.

The terms of the deal also call for Ramirez and Swaney to do 50 hours of community service annually for 15 years and each pay more than $12,000 in restitution to Martin - a condition that prompted Marx to issue a strict warning to the men.

'I don't care if you have to work two jobs, gentlemen,' Marx said.

After the hearing, Roberts said the deal was appropriate in this case because Martin was not an innocent victim on the street, but rather someone who chose to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana with his friends who got behind the wheel.

'It didn't make sense to do anything else,' Roberts said, adding that the terms of the 15-year probation are extremely strict and won't be easy for the men.

She also said that even if convicted of DUI manslaughter, Marx likely would not have sentenced either man to the 15-year maximum. Martin wanted the men locked up for life, Roberts said.

Martin said she left the hearing feeling 'let down' by the judicial system.

'My life has just been ripped away,' she said.

In a letter that Martin wrote to Marx last week, Martin said the terms of the plea agreement are 'an insult to my son's memory and a slap in my face.'

'I believe, that if the state wants to stop drunk driving and road racing, they need to impose sentences that are on par with the offense,' Martin wrote. 'A year in jail for killing a human being is a joke, and sends the wrong message to the community.'

Source: http://www.topix.net/content/trb/2008/04/2-get-deal-of-a-lifetime-in-drag-racing-dui-crash-that-killed-boynton-man

 

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The following story (subscription required) appeared in the Monday June 9th edition of the National Law Journal:

Challenges grow over sex offender laws
Welter of confusion over restrictions.

Pamela A. MacLean / Staff reporter
June 9, 2008

The creation of complex sex offender registration systems and increasingly stringent limits on where offenders may live has spawned hundreds of legal challenges in state and federal courts throughout the nation.

The actions range from how long electronic tracking devices must be worn to whether juvenile records must be part of public registrations.

Challenges to the new laws — often hastily passed in the wake of a brutal crime — generally center on battles over who must comply, making retroactivity and prospective treatment crucial.

Takings claims under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution also weigh heavily when a sex offender is forced from a long-time home by newly imposed bans on living near playgrounds or video arcades.

So far, 20 states hav e laws restricting where sex offenders can live, and hundreds of cities have their own limits, according to Wayne Logan, a criminal law professor at Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee.

The most common laws banish offenders from zones within 2,000 feet of schools and parks.

The Georgia Supreme Court recently struck down a residency restriction on Fifth Amendment grounds, but upheld a portion that barred sex offenders from working in the restricted zones, Logan said. Mann v. Georgia Dept. of Corrections, 282 Ga. 754 (2007).

The California Supreme Court must choose from a raft of theories on how to apply a 2006 voter-approved residency law prospectively. So far, the plaintiffs, the state attorney general, local district attorneys, the governor and state prison officials have all weighed in with different positions. In re E.J. habeas corpus, No. S156933 (Calif.).

Ohio's legal meltdown

But it is Ohio that finds itself in the midst o f a legal meltdown because of a shift in sex offender registration law. Ohio rushed to switch from a long-standing state offender registration program to the 2006 federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act registration system.

More than 26,000 people, including juveniles, were reclassified as sex offenders and ordered to register for a public list for up to 25 years. This spawned a federal class action challenge over timing of public notification, and a limited restraining order issued in Doe v. Dann, No. 8-cv-220PAG (N.D. Ohio). Also, thousands of individual state challenges to reclassifications are pending.

Many of those reclassified are indigent or in prison. Local counties won't pick up the tab for lawyers in what is considered a civil dispute, said Jay Macke, who leads the efforts for the Ohio Public Defenders Office. "We don't have enough indigent defense counsel to cover this," he said. But for those who can afford private lawyers, "this is a lawyer ful l-employment act," he said.

On May 9, a Cuyahoga County judge found that the Adam Walsh Act's retroactive reclassification violated both the Ohio Constitution's retroactivity clause and ex post facto protections. Evans v. Ohio, No. cv-08-646797. Several other appeals are pending, but ultimately the issue will go to the Ohio Supreme Court, the judge said.

The Adam Walsh Act, among other things, creates a national sex offender registry. It also restricts where an offender may live and allows civil psychiatric commitment of offenders.

The act also compels states to enact similar laws by mid-2009 or face loss of federal law enforcement funds. For states that quickly adopt the law, there is promise of a 10% bonus on federal funds.

The financial incentives amount to an "imaginary carrot and an imaginary stick," Macke said. Ohio received no reward for acting early, and now it appears that the money will be slashed from the federal budget anyway, he said.

Most courts have permitted laws restricting where sex offenders may live, according to Corey Yung, an assistant professor of criminal law at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, who has written extensively on sex offender law. Battles now center on whom they apply to and under what conditions.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved residency restriction laws in Arkansas and Iowa, but the Iowa law was so onerous that most sex offenders were forced to live in cars, cemeteries or abandoned houses. Once homeless, they stopped registering. This prompted the Iowa County Attorneys Association and Iowa sheriffs in 2007 to petition the legislature to repeal the law as "counterproductive." The legislature refused.

"Legislators did such a good job of selling the idea that the restrictions on residency was a safety measure, people have the false idea it provides safety and politicians fear going against that," said Corwin Ritchie, executive director of the Iowa Count y Attorneys Association.

Florida had 60 cities in one year adopt restrictions and in 2005 some banned sex offenders from public hurricane shelters, forcing them to go to local prisons during storms.

"A lot of these people are becoming homeless — it is becoming a real problem where they can live," said Ronald Chapman, a criminal defense lawyer of West Palm Beach, Fla.'s Chapman Law Firm. Registration now includes putting the sex law violation on the driver's license.

California's voter-approved law also has conflicts with a sweeping legislative reform of sex offender residence limits that the state Supreme Court will have to sort out.

The voters' version, Proposition 83, bars sex criminals from living within 2,000 feet of a park or school, and offenders who complete prison terms must also wear global positioning devices for the rest of their lives.

In two federal court challenges to the same state initiative, one held the California residence restr ictions could not be applied to a prisoner released before the law's passage. Doe v. Schwarzenegger, No. C06-2521LKK (E.D. Calif.). The other held that it did not apply to a sex offender who served 12 years' probation before the act's adoption. Doe v. Schwarzenegger, No. C06-6968JSW (N.D. Calif.).

But those federal rulings are not binding on the state court, said Janet Neeley, deputy attorney general in charge of the sex offender registry in California.

"Nothing is cleared up," she said. "There are no California cases published on the point, and we don't even know who the law applies to," she said. So far the law has not been enforced because of the questions about who is covered under the "prospective" application. The initiative also failed to create a misdemeanor crime for violation, Neeley said. "There is no way to punish anyone, unless they are violating parole or probation."

And the Adam Walsh Act faces federal constitutional challenges. Two federal circu it courts, the 4th Circuit and the 11th Circuit, are now considering whether Congress violated the Constitution's commerce clause in passing the Adam Walsh Act because challengers allege it has no nexus with interstate commerce. U.S. v. Comstock, No. 06-hc-2195BR, and U.S. v. Powers, 07-cr-221KRS.

Pamela A. MacLean
California Bureau Chief
National Law Journal

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The following story appeared April 25, 2008 in the Palm Beach County edition of Hometown News:

By Michelle Gentile
Staff writer

JUPITER — A co-defendant in the shooting trial of a 21-year-old Jupiter man arranged a plea deal with prosecutors and testified against the man who the jury considered the principal in the murder.

Both defendants in the murder case of Denny Rowland paid a price.

In a trial that began April 7, Zachary Zeman was found guilty of first-degree murder and three other serious felonies last week.

The other co-defendant, Rikardo Alvarenga, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and will spend his 20s, and most of his 30s, in jail for a mistake that he said leaves him crushed and remorseful.

“He’s so very sorry Denny died that night and that this ever happened,” said Ron Chapman, Mr. Alvarenga’s attorney. “It has wreaked havoc on all the families involved and it’s just a tragedy.”

Mr. Alvarenga was sentenced to 20 years in prison last week, and since he has already served two years, that will make him eligible for parole when he is around 37.

“I don’t blame Ricky,” said Charla Las Casas, Mr. Rowland’s mother who testified against Mr. Zeman last week. “I knew Ricky didn’t have the heart to do this to my kid. He was forced by gunpoint.”

On the night of Feb 10, 2006, a trip to collect some money turned into homicide.

Police reports showed that Mr. Zeman and Ricky Alvarenga went to the home of Mr. Rowland to collect $140, reimbursement for a hotel room. While they were there, the two forced Mr. Rowland into his Jupiter home that he shared with his mother and brother, Joey, and demanded the money.

Ms. Las Casas was ordered, at gunpoint, to kneel with her head down but saw what transpired.

“It happened so quick. My thoughts were twirling and I knew who shot Denny. I knew who put the gun to my face and it was Zach,” said Ms. Las Casas.

During trial, there was confusion about who actually pulled the trigger.

Police reports, testimony and, ultimately, and the 12- panel jury indicated Mr. Zeman was the principal in the murder.

Also discussed during trial was the gun’s ownership.

The gun used to shoot Mr. Rowland was stolen from a Tampa man and Mr. Zeman had moved from Palm Beach County to Tampa.

Last words

“Mom, I think you need to call 911,” Mr. Rowland told his mother as he lay bleeding on the kitchen floor.

The bullet had entered into his right armpit, cleared through his right lung and severed his aorta. It came out his left lung, which is why he could not breathe, said Ms. Las Casas.

“What a horrific tragedy, as I watched my son get shot, and I sat with him, struggling to breathe, I knew from my nursing background he had only seconds to live,” she read to the judge during the victim’s impact statement.

Mr. Zeman shouted out, “What about what your son did to me? He shot me.”

Circuit Judge Jorge Labarga called a recess following her statement. Before the verdict was read, he cautioned spectators about any outbursts or “be arrested on the spot.”

Over the last two years, while in jail, Mr. Alvarenga and Mr. Zeman have been in altercations.

At one brief stint in the courthouse last year, Mr. Zeman jumped over a guard and attacked Mr. Alvarenga.

“As they were coming to court one day, Mr. Zeman hit him and as he walked into the courtroom it was obvious he was bruised,” said Mr. Chapman. “As long as they keep them in separate facilities, I think everything will be OK.”

Ms. Las Casas feels differently. She is worried for Mr. Alvarenga’s life and says that his life has been repeatedly threatened by Mr. Zeman.

“Ricky told me that Zach wrote on a kite (prison slang for note) that he was trying to hire two guys to kill Ricky in county jail,” said Ms. Las Casas. “I don’t want any danger for Ricky.”

Mr. Rowland was an aspiring song promoter and songwriter, who was good friends with Mr. Alvarenga.

More than 400 of his peers attended Mr. Rowland’s funeral and another 50 celebrated the second anniversary of his death.

“I’m still in disbelief over the death of my son. I just thought buying baby clothes, cribs and his clothes as he became an adult was just part of raising my son. I never believed, in a million years, that I would be buying a casket,” said Ms. Las Casas.

“I’m not a vengeful person and I don’t want harm coming to Zach or to Ricky, but I do need closure and that means the right punishment for (these kids) making the most stupid choice of their lives.”

“I can close a chapter of this book,” said Ms. Las Casas. “I’m on the way to healing now.”

Mr. Zeman is expected to be back in court for formal sentencing on June 12.

gentile@hometownnewsol.com

• A PDF printout of the original story is available here.

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The following story appeared April 4, 2008 in the Palm Beach County edition of Hometown News:

By Michelle Gentile
Staff writer

JUPITER - For the first time since her son was murdered two years ago, Charla Las Casas is flying back to Jupiter. She wants to be there when attorneys start selecting the jury next week for one of two trials to be held in the murder of her son.

Denny Rowland, 21, died the morning of Feb. 10, 2006, after two men entered their Jupiter home and held her son at gunpoint and held her hostage, according to police reports. Later, her son died on the kitchen floor from gunshot wounds that hit his aorta.

"I was there for his last breath," said Ms. Las Casas. "His ashes will be with me in court where we'll await justice."

The only eyewitness in the killing, Ms. Las Casas will be able to tell what happened that night to the jurors to be picked on April 7.

Testifying in the future trial is also Jessie Sanchez, 21, Mr. Rowland's girlfriend at the time and someone who knew him since middle school. She was on the phone with him during the attack.

"I was on the phone when the shots were happening," said Ms. Sanchez. "Denny told me he'd been shot and to get over to his house."

Jury selection starts next week for the trial of the man responsible for pulling the trigger, Zachary Zeman, 22, who has been charged with first-degree murder with a firearm and burglary with a firearm.

The second trial will be for Rikardo Alvarenga, 22, also charged with first-degree murder and robbery. No date for that trial has been set.

Investigative findings and 405 pages of discovery documents will bring to light the events of that day.

"When he came home, Zach and Ricky ambushed him in the front yard," said Ms. Las Cases. "I don't know why Ricky did this, we befriended him. They (Denny and Ricky) were close. Ricky watched movies with us and ate dinner with us."

Mr. Rowland and Mr. Alvarenga were friends in high school, according to Ms. Las Casas, and a few years out of high school the two had gotten back in touch.

"Ricky was my son's friend who I think set him up with Zachary. The whole reason this took place was because my son was supposed to get paid a large sum of money from a record company," she said. "He hadn't picked up the check yet, but I believe they thought he did."

Mr. Rowland was an aspiring music promoter and songwriter and had an event promotion company called On Target Entertainment.

"He was looking forward to some day becoming a music artist," said Ms. Sanchez. "It was his big goal and he was going to try and make it."

A week prior to the shooting, Mr. Rowland, Mr. Alvarenga and one other person rented a hotel room and put the charges on Mr. Alvarenga's credit card. A third of that amount was approximately $50.

"Mr. Alvarenga gave a sworn, taped statement that Zachary Zeman and he went to Rowland's home during the early morning hours to collect a debt of $140 that Rowland allegedly owed Alvarenga," police reports show. "Mr. Alvarenga stated that Zeman kept the gun on his lap while both men waited outside the Rowlands' home for him to return."

"I was talking to him before it happened," said Ms. Sanchez. "He was walking up to his house when he was confronted by them."

Ms. Las Casas said when she looked outside she saw Mr. Alvarenga and her son, but didn't know who the other guy was.

"The expression on my son's face was pure terror," she said. "Being a mom, you never want to see that look on your child's face."

Ms. Las Casas opened the door to the two men and her son, when Mr. Zeman and Mr. Alvarenga forced their way into the home and made way for Mr. Rowland's bedroom.

Once at the bedroom Ms. Las Casas was forced to put her head down onto the mattress but heard several gunshots. After the shots, both men fled from the home. Ms. Las Casas went to the aid of her son, who died on the kitchen floor, police reports said.

"If I had known, I would have given (the gunman) $50 out of my pocket," said Ms. Las Casas. "Denny said he would pay him, but I didn't know he would pay with his life."

Just after 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 10, Jupiter Police officers found Mr. Rowland's body lying on the kitchen floor of his mother's home. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Shortly after the shooting, police received a call that a black pickup truck had dropped off a white male at Jupiter Medical Center's emergency room with a gunshot wound. Authorities later identified the man as Mr. Zeman.

Mr. Alvarenga told investigators he used his stepfather's pickup truck, because he knew no one would recognize the vehicle. He then drove Mr. Zeman to the Jupiter Inlet Waterway where he threw the firearm into the inlet.

"The prosecutor's theory is that he assisted him with the murder and therefore, they are seeking first-degree murder, even though Mr. Zeman did the shooting," said Ron Chapman, the defense attorney for Mr. Alvarenga.

Mr. Zeman is being defended by the public defender.

The defense for Mr. Alvarenga says it will evaluate how Mr. Zeman's trail goes and make adjustments based on that.

"He (Mr. Alvarenga) provided the gun and he set out to use his stepfather's car. It seems clear to me," said Ms. Las Casas.

With the home blocked off with yellow tape, detectives and investigators spent three days probing the house and surrounding area for evidence.

"There were over 400 kids who attended the funeral and I was told that over 50 people showed up for the Feb. 10, 2007 anniversary of his death," said Ms. Las Casas. "He was popular and very well liked."

The State Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case beginning April 7. They both have remained in jail since 2006.

"I definitely feel justice will be served and bring more closure to the entire situation," said Ms. Sanchez.

If convicted of the crimes they are charged, both Mr. Zeman and Mr. Alvarenga could serve a maximum of two life sentences.

"I've been waiting for this trial to begin for a long time," said Ms. Las Casas. "I just know that I can't move on (until) this is finished."

gentile@hometownnewsol.com

Shortly before this article appeared in the Hometown News, Rikardo Alvarenga entered into a plea agreement with the State Attorney's Office.  Part of that agreement included Mr. Alvarenga testifying for the prosecution at Zachary Zeman's trial.

• A PDF printout of the original story is available here.
  

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By Sarah Prohaska

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 08, 2007

FORT PIERCE — A jury deliberated for more than four hours Wednesday and will return today to mull the fate of two men accused of orchestrating a complex scheme that prosecutors say defrauded elderly investors out of millions of dollars.

The jurors will meet at the federal courthouse at 9:30 a.m. to resume deliberations in the trial for Leonard Bogdan Jr. and John Brant, who investigators say created a so-called Ponzi scheme between 1998 and January 2001 that took more than $16 million from mostly retired investors. Some of those retirees say they lost their life savings when they invested in the Bogdan Financial Group or several other related companies.

"The reason we are here today is because the investors who gave close to $17 million, at the end of the day, had nothing to show for it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Acosta said Wednesday morning during her closing argument. "The picture all this paints is: This company and these two defendants would do anything, and did do anything, to get this money."

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By DEREK SIMMONSEN
February 21, 2007

FORT PIERCE ˜ Leonard Bogdan was either the head of a complicated scheme to fleece investors out of millions or a poor manager who tried but couldn't revive a failing business venture.


Those two very different versions of Bogdan were presented to jurors during opening statements Tuesday as his federal fraud trial began.


Bogdan, 55, stands accused alongside his former business partner, John Brant, 64. Both men are charged with multiple counts of mail fraud and a single charge of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with the operation of Bogdan Financial in Port St. Lucie and One Source Financial in Stuart. Bogdan also faces charges of money laundering.


Bogdan and Brant began recruiting investors in 1998, promising a return of at least 10 percent and the money would be secured with real estate ˜ a recorded first lien mortgage on property, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Diana Acosta.


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