Florida DUI Traffic Ticket Lawyer Blog

A Tampa woman was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine after her son was pulled over for driving without his headlights on. During what is being described as a routine traffic stop, police discovered that 19-year-old Marcell L. Jones was driving without a license. He was issued a traffic ticket for that offense.

During the stop, police claim to have smelled marijuana and that lead to a search of the 19-year-old’s passenger, who just happened to be his mother. During that search police say they found 17 grams of coke in several small bags. She was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia as well and held in lieu of $12,000 bail.

According to prosecutors, Candy Cummings get a great deal when she pled guilty to a fatal hit-and-run in 2009. She was given no jail time, two years of house arrest and five years of probation. According to TBO.com, the girl has violated her probation for leaving her home on numerous occasions and she now may be going to jail.

The mother of Cummings’ victim was in court and believes the women’s seven year sentence should now be spent inside a jail cell instead of in her living room. It will be up to a judge to determine what will happen next when a hearing is held April 8. Cummings could serve the rest of her sentence for leaving the scene of an accident in a Polk County prison.

A Dade City traffic stop led to the 26th arrest for Jennifer Miller for driving with a suspended license. According to a story on TBO.com Dade City police Chief Ray Velboom says Miller had 25 previous incidences of her driver’s license being suspended in about 75% of the counties in the state of Florida. This last stop resulted in Miller attempting to run down the officer after giving him a license that did not belong to her. She was also charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

Miller has insisted she was not driving the day of her arrest. She is quoted on TBO.com as saying she was in Land O’Lakes at the time selling a truck. The incident began when police were called about cars speeding near a home known for drug use. Miller was not arrested until more than a week after the incident when she was found outside the Pasco County Courthouse.

An 86-year-old woman was arrested in Fort Meyers, Florida for missing a court date stemming from a charge of leaving the scene of an accident with property damage. Jeanne Marie Owens-Libby had a warrant for her arrest issued after missing her court date for the alleged hit and run. She was booked into Lee County Jail and released on bond.

According to a story on 10 Connects, the woman told deputies she missed her court date because she wasn’t feeling well. When she tried to call she was swamped in the automated phone system that makes most everyone’s life miserable when trying to actually speak to a live person in the county government. She said after a while she didn’t want to bother anymore.

Not entirely sure what St. Petersburg man Robert Taylor was thinking when he decided to report his 1995 Thunderbird stolen but it seems like it was a bad decision in hindsight. Taylor is now under arrest for leaving the scene of an accident with property damage, filing a false crime report and driving with a suspended license.

According to a story on TampaBay.com, Taylor tried to cover up two hit-and-run accidents by telling police his car had been stolen the night before. The only problem was Taylor had a passenger in the car who was a witness to the accidents. Pinellas police gave Taylor the chance to recant his false report that his car was stolen, but he stuck by the story. The police didn’t have to go far to find Taylor to arrest him on these charges as he was already in one of their jail cells on charges of DUI and child abuse.

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Last weekend law enforcement officers were led on a chase over the Skyway Bridge as they pursued two men, one of which turned out to be a 15-year-old. According to a story in the Sarasota Herald Tribune the pair were trying to elude officers in a stolen car. A 21-year-old named Lashay Cooper who is a Bradenton resident was arrested but the 15-year-old was not apprehended.

The chase began when law enforcement tried to arrest the teenager at the Hall nightclub in Palmetto due to the fact there were eight warrants out for his arrest. The teen and Cooper then allegedly sped away leading police on a chase into Pinellas County. There were traveling in a Saab SUV that was reportedly stolen from a Longboat Key resident. According to the Manatee County Sheriff’s office the teen will face numerous charges including driving without a valid license, fleeing to elude law enforcement and resisting arrest with violence. Cooper was booked into Pinellas County Jail on one charge of grand theft auto.

If you have been charged with a crime in St. Petersburg or Pinellas County and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact St. Petersburg Criminal Defense Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourPinellasArrest.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email or by stopping our Clearwater office located at 4500 140th Ave. N Suite #203.

The story of Emmanuel Mejia is a sad one and his plight will continue to bring national scrutiny to the issue of texting while driving. Mejia is a sanitation worker who lost both his legs and two fingers due to a car accident that seems to have been caused by a man who was texting while driving. The Sarasota Herald Tribune is reporting details of the fateful day on August 25 when Mejia’s life was changed forever.

The 20-year-old amateur boxer was emptying trash cans in Bartow when he was struck by 26-year-old Stephen Horne. Mejia was revived on three occasions when his heart stopped and had his left leg amputated below the knee and his right leg amputated half way up his thigh. He also lost half his right thumb and his right index finger.

Horne has been charged with reckless driving with serious bodily injury and has been arrested by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. The charges carry a possible five-year prison term. Witnesses claim Horne said he was texting at the time of the accident following the crash. Polk Sheriff’s have obtained a search warrant for Horne’s phone to determine what happened right before the traffic accident.

If you have been cited for a traffic violation in Tampa or anywhere in Hillsborough County that led to your arrest and are in need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Defense Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTicket.com. Also you can contact Darren via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

Tarpon Springs’ Levar Murray pleaded guilty to several drug charges, fleeing to elude and leaving the scene of an accident with property damage according to a story on the website TBO.com. The 22-year-old has been sentenced to four years in prison stemming from an incident that ended when he crashed his car into a housed on Holiday Lake Drive.

The incident took place in June when a deputy was following Murray’s Pontiac on Holiday Lake Drive. Murray began to speed and would not stop when the deputy tried to pull him over. Murray lost control of his car and then crashed his car into a house. Two passengers were injured and the police found Murray hiding in the backseat of his car.

If you have been cited for a traffic violation in St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Pinellas County that led to an arrest you need qualified legal representation. Please do not hesitate to contact experienced Criminal Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourPinellasArrest.com. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Clearwater office located at 4500 140 Ave. North #203.

Police were on the lookout for Sirena Williams in connection with a hit and run charge in which she was driving a car without a license tag. According to a story on TampaBay.com Tampa police located her Thursday afternoon as she ran a red light. Williams pulled over and then according to police reports ran out of the car as her four-year-old son called for his mother to stop running away from the police.

Police eventually caught up with Williams and charged her with aggravated fleeing to elude arrest, driving with a suspended license and two counts of child neglect. There was another passenger in the car who was 17-years-old. Williams was taken to Hillsborough County Jail and released on $11,750 bail.

If you have been cited for a traffic violation in Tampa or anywhere in Hillsborough County that lead to your arrest and are in need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Defense Attorney Darren Finebloom at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTicket.com. Also you can contact Darren via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.

A speeding stop led to much more than just a traffic citation for a 44-year-old Tampa woman. Joyce Ray was pulled over in Clearwater for driving a reported 79 M.P.H. in a 45 zone. According to TampaBay.com when police got to the vehicle they saw a minor in the car with alcohol. It was at that point they began to investigate more than a speeder.

During their investigation Clearwater police found two credit cards on Ray that did not belong to her. They later discovered that she had allegedly stolen 10 credit cards from a private employee area at a David’s Bridal. She reportedly charged more than $3000 on those stolen cards. She is in a Pinellas County Jail now on charges of grand theft, burglary, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and scheme to defraud.

If you have been cited for a traffic violation that led to your arrest in St. Petersburg, Clearwater or Pinellas County and you are in need of qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourPinellasArrest.com. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Clearwater office located at 4500 140 Ave. North #203.

Deputy Lee Harrington is facing disciplinary actions following his wrongful arrest of a former state representative. Harrington has been suspended and demoted due to his arrest of Mark Flanagan who reportedly obstructed a hit-and-run case. In a Bradenton Herald story Sheriff Brad Steube said Harrington had no grounds to arrest Flanagan.

According to the story Flanagan was trying to protect his son who was a witness to a hit-and-run case. For non-traffic misdemeanors there is usually a notice to appear in court issued, not an arrest. Harrington will lose 240 hours without pay for his mistake and will return to work as a dispatcher, which comes with a pay decrease of more than $10,000.

If you have been cited in a traffic accident and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Traffic Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourTickets.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email or by stopping in our Sarasota office located at 200 N. Washington Blvd.

Hit-and-Run or Leaving The Scene of an Accident is a serious charge in a fender bender but when the driver kills a pedestrian it elevates to a serious crime and that is why the Florida Highway Patrol is asking for the help of the public in Pinellas County. According to a story on the St. Petersburg Times website, the FHP is seeking anyone with information on a Thursday night hit and run crash.

Tony Sorenson was killed walking across Ulmerton around 8:00 p.m. The 41-year-old resident of Ft. Meyers was hit by a silver Ford F-150. Sorenson was pronounced dead at the Largo Medical Center and the driver of the Ford truck is unknown. If you have information on the traffic accident, please call (813) 631-4020.

If you have been involved in a traffic-related felony in St. Petersburg or Pinellas County and you are in need of qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourPinellasArrest.com. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Clearwater office located at 4500 140 Ave. North #203.

The Sarasota County Sheriff is cracking down on driver’s who are getting behind the wheel despite the fact they have a suspended license. On Thursday Sheriff’s deputies were in court monitoring DWLS cases and followed driver’s out into the courthouse parking lot. If a driver with a suspended license got behind the wheel, they got nabbed according to Todd Ruger of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in today’s paper. Only two driver’s who were followed out of court got into a car to drive and both were arrested.

The officer’s thought they may have had a third arrest when a man with a history of DUI charges left court and headed to a liquor store but officer’s lost him when he slipped out a back door. Today the sting, called ‘Operation Gotcha’ moves to South County where half of the county’s 6,000 suspended drivers reside. This was the first sting at the Sarasota County Courthouse but Sheriff’s deputies said to expect more.

If your license has been suspended and that led to your arrest in Sarasota or Mantaee County and you are in need of qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Criminal Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourSuspension.com. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Sarasota office located at 200 N. Washington Blvd.

A Sarasota County woman was pulled over at 2:00 a.m. because she was allegedly driving while her license was suspended. The traffic stop and subsequent arrest of Crystal Haas seemed to be going fairly normally until the woman started complaining she felt ‘closed in’ while handcuffed in the back of the North Port police car. At that point the officer rolled down the window of the cruiser and Haas slipped out of her handcuffs and bailed out the window according to police reports chronicled in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Haas took off on foot with an officer in chase. The officer reportedly Tasered the woman twice but she continued to flee the police and jumped into a near-by canal. The officer finally caught up to Haas and pulled her out of the canal and at that point the woman is alleged to have tried to strike the officer and then kicked him once he put a second set of cuffs on the woman. Haas has been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, escape and resisting arrest with violence. She was released from the Sarasota County jail on $11,500 bond.

If you have been cited for a traffic violation that led to your arrest in Sarasota or Mantaee County and you are in need of qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Criminal Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourCase.com. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Sarasota office located at 200 N. Washington Blvd.

A Clearwater man who is accused of ramming a Pinellas County Sheriff Deputy’s cruiser was located hiding under the water, below a dock in nothing but his underwear. According to a story on TampaBay.com, 38-year-old Dana Shepard was arrested after police dogs helped sheriffs locate the man who is accused of ramming a stolen car into the deputy who stopped him for an expired tag.

According to the police Shepard backed his car into the cruiser and then drove off. At one point he abandoned the stolen vehicle and fled on foot. Deputies not only used police dogs but helicopters as well to locate the suspect. He has been charged with driving with an expired license, tag not assigned, fleeing and eluding, leaving the scene of an accident, grand theft auto and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

If you have been cited for a traffic violation that led to an arrest in Pinellas County and you are in need of qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact experienced Defense Attorney David Haenel at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourPinellasArrest.com. Also you can contact David via email or by stopping in our Clearwater office located at 4500 140 Ave. North #203.

Tampa man Eric Bentley was arrested for the 13th time in Hillsborough County Tuesday night following a high speed chase. The 36-year-old was reportedly driving 75 M.P.H. in a residential area with his 12-year-old son in the car according to a story on tampabay.com. Police ran the man’s plates and found he was driving with a suspended license for failure to pay child support. At that point two officers attempted to stop Bentley but he fled and was eventually boxed in by a combination of marked and unmarked police cars. Following the stop Bentley tried to flee on foot but he was apprehended and arrested.

Bentley was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail where he was being held on $15,500 bail. He has been charged with numerous counts including child neglect, reckless driving, fleeing to allude arrest at a high speed and driving without a license. According to the report Bentley has previously been charged with offenses involving cocaine, marijuana and alcohol, trespassing, leaving the scene of a crash, aggravated battery and false imprisonment among others.

If you have been involved in a traffic incident in Tampa that has led to your arrest in Hillsborough County and need qualified legal representation, please do not hesitate to contact Criminal Defense Attorney Stephen Higgins at 1-800-FIGHT-IT (1-800-344-4848) to discuss the matter or visit our website FightYourCase.com. Also you can contact Stephen via email or by stopping in our new Tampa office located at 3426 W. Kennedy Blvd.