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

          It is an all-too-frequent occurrence in Florida's criminal courts that a judge will set a bond in a given case, yet the accused individual continues to remain in jail because he cannot afford to pay that bond.  That is precisely what happened in the case of Stallings v. Ryan which arose in Miami.

          David Stallings actually had two different cases.  In the first case, he was charged with 22 counts of sexual battery on a victim under the age of 12 and 21 counts of sexual battery/engaging in a sex act with a family child under the age of one.  In the second case, he was charged with 30 counts of sexual battery on a victim under the age of 12 and 29 counts of sexual battery/engaging in a sex act with a family child under the age of one.

          Because Stallings was being held in jail without any bond at all, he asked the trial judge to set a reasonable bond.  The judge held a hearing but ordered that Stallings continue to be held without any bond.  Stallings appealed that ruling to Florida's Third District Court of Appeal which, in turn, ordered the trial judge to set a reasonable bond.  In response, the trial judge set a monetary bond for both cases totaling $910,000.

          Stallings then filed a second petition for writ of habeas corpus in which he argued that such a high bond was unreasonable and excessive in light of the appellate court's prior ruling.  The Third District Court of Appeal once again agreed with Stallings and this time ordered that the trial judge set a reasonable bond of no more than $100,000.  In so doing, the Third District Court stated that "the law is well-settled that excessive bond, depending on the financial resources of the defendant, is tantamount to no bond at all.  Based on [Stallings's] financial resources, the bond set was clearly excessive and tantamount to no bond.  Furthermore, in light of [Stallings's] proven strong ties to the community, compliance with prior court orders, and ownership of residential property, which can be used as collateral for a reasonable bond, the present bond amount [of $910,000] is unwarranted."

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The amount of jail time that a judge can sentence a person to in DUI cases depends upon such things as whether the person has any prior convictions for DUI, whether the person's blood-alcohol level or breath-alcohol level was 0.20 or higher when driving, or whether the person had a minor in his vehicle while driving.  Florida statute section 316.193 lists the possible jail penalties for DUI.  Some of those penalties include:

• For a first DUI conviction, the maximum jail sentence is 6 months.  However, if the individual has a blood-alcohol level or breath-alcohol level of 0.20 or higher or if a minor is in the vehicle, the maximum sentence is 9 months jail.

• For a second DUI conviction, the maximum jail sentence is 9 months. However, if the individual has a blood-alcohol level or breath-alcohol level of 0.20 or higher or if a minor is in the vehicle, the maximum sentence is 12 months jail.  Also, if the second conviction occurs within 5 years of a prior DUI conviction, there is a mandatory penalty of at least 10 days in jail, and at least 48 hours of that jail sentence must be served consecutively.

• For a third DUI conviction, the maximum prison sentence is 5 years if the third conviction is within 10 years of a prior DUI conviction.  There is also a mandatory penalty of at least 30 days in jail, and at least 48 hours of that jail sentence must be served consecutively.  However, if the third DUI conviction occurs more than 10 years after a prior DUI conviction, the maximum penalty is 12 months in jail.

• For 4 or more DUI convictions, the maximum penalty is 5 years in prison.

Judges may, if they choose, require persons convicted of DUI to serve all or any portion of imprisonment in a residential alcoholism treatment program or in a residential drug abuse treatment program, and any time spent in such programs must be credited toward the total amount of imprisonment that is imposed.

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I sometimes get a frantic phone call from a wife or mother stating that one of her family members has just been arrested and asking whether her loved one will be able to bond out of jail.  I ask what charge the loved one was arrested for.  If the charge is a crime of violence listed in the Palm Beach County bond schedule, then the loved one will have to remain in jail until he or she goes to a first-appearance hearing which is typically held within 24 hours of the person being arrested.  At that hearing, a judge will determine whether the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest the person and what amount bond is to be set at (assuming that the judge found probable cause to exist).  Before October 1, 2006, just one bond was set even if a person was arrested on several different counts.  However, since that date, a judge at first appearance is required to set a bond for each specific count.  Thus, if a person was, for example, arrested for 5 counts of grand theft prior to October 1, 2006, a judge might have set one bond in the amount of $10,000 to cover all 5 counts.  But since October 1, a judge might set bond at $5,000 for each count which would result in the arrested person having a total bond of $25,000.  The result has been the setting of some ridiculously-high bonds.  I have even heard some prosecutors question whether such a system does not at times result in unreasonably high bonds.

Florida criminal lawyer Ronald Chapman has been representing people accused of committing crimes since 1990. You can read more about Mr. Chapman’s experience as a Florida criminal attorney as well as review news articles about some of his cases. Some of the types of cases and issues that Mr. Chapman has handled since 1990 include:

• Death Penalty Cases
• Assault and Battery Cases
• DUI Cases
• Drug Cases
• Sex Crimes Cases
• Sealing & Expunging Criminal Records
• Bond|Bail
• Mistaken Identification and Wrongful Conviction
• Police Interrogations
• Sentencing

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