One of the cases that I’ll never forget involves a young client of mine who was involved in a situation that anybody can get involved in. My name is Marcia Hansen, and I’m a criminal defense attorney here in Miami, Florida.
So one of the cases involves a client of mine who was charged with aggravated battery. Aggravated battery is a third-degree felony, and my client was facing five years in state prison. He went to a bar and he drank a lot like most twenty-year-olds do, having a good time. He ended up getting a little too boisterous and loud.
The staff told him to leave. He didn’t leave. He continued having a good time, so the staff decided to physically escort him out. According to my client, they crossed the line and they roughed him up a little bit too much. Unfortunately, in his drunken stupor, he decided to defend himself. He ended up throwing a punch at one of the bouncers, but that bouncer had very good reflexes. My client’s fist ended up landing in the face of the owner. So the owner fell flat on his face and was left unconscious. Somebody there called the police, so they immediately heard from the witnesses, and they ended up arresting my client.
So here we have a young man who’s never been arrested in his life facing five years in state prison. He decided it was time to get a criminal defense attorney, and he was referred to me. And I did what I do in every one of my cases. I basically dissected every single evidence that the state claimed they had and tried to find out if they had any corroborating evidence or information to support what they were claiming against my client.
The first thing that I did is I looked into all of the state’s discovery, and I saw that there were about ten witnesses confirming that he actually did hit the man, and allegedly, medical records showing that the injury was pretty bad. I didn’t have the medical records and I decided, you know I think it’s important that I get the medical records to actually corroborate what the state is saying.
And that’s how I’ve learned in my experience is the way to attack a criminal defense case as a criminal defense attorney. You always dissect what the state has, and you usually see yourself chipping away at their evidence, and you usually get a good result for your client.
Criminal Defense Attorney: An Example of What We Do
I found out that the prosecutor was offering three years state prison because the injury was allegedly severe. So I did some research. And I found out that a severe injury is something that is permanent, that requires surgery. So I said, well, where are the medical records? Let me see if this is a severe injury.
The only medical records I got after going in front of the judge because the prosecutor refused to provide them to me was a bunch of bills and nothing else. So there I chipped away at the state’s “severe injury” case. And it became, really, just a punch in somebody’s face. And I also put together a huge mitigation packet with a bunch of witness statements and a lot of information about how great my client was. This was his first arrest, and we ended up receiving a much better deal to close the case out.
So from a person who was facing five years in state prison, he got one year probation. No conviction, and his probation was early terminated. To me, the cards were stacked against him, which most of my clients are facing that. I always just chip away at the state’s case like I did in this case, and I’m really proud of what I did for him because I see he now has a life, whereas he could have been in prison.
I’m Marcia Hansen of the Hansen Law Firm. If you or someone you know needs a criminal defense attorney, don’t hesitate to call me.
