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The Name You Trust.

We have deep ties to the community, we have represented clients in Southwest Florida for more than 25 years.

The Name You
Know.
The Name You
Trust.

We have deep ties to the community, we have represented clients in Southwest Florida for more than 25 years.

Photo of Ian F. Mann

Mistakes can be made in drug possession accusations

Mistakes can be made. The majority of mistakes are minor and can easily be corrected. Other times, the mistakes are major ones and can leave lasting damage to property, individuals and/or an individual’s reputation. In fact, Florida law enforcement officers are not above making mistakes; unfortunately, when they do, and one is wrongly accused of drug possession, the results can be damaging to an individual.

In 2015, a 65-year-old man was leaving a Florida convenience store when he failed to stop and was pulled over by law enforcement. The officer asked the man to step out of his car, and as the man complied, the officer spotted an unknown substance on the floorboard of the car. The officer used a drug test kit twice and determined that the substance was amphetamine. The man insisted that the substance was not drugs; instead, it was the flakes from a donut. The officer then arrested the man, and he spent approximately 10-hours in jail as a result.

The substance was later tested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s crime lab, where it was determined that the substance, in fact, was not a drug. However, the lab did not go on to identify exactly what the substance was. The charges against the man were dropped; however, the emotional damage that the accusation caused remained.

Florida law enforcement officers can and do make mistakes. Sometimes these mistakes come into play in the drug possession arrest of an individual. When one is charged with such a crime, he or she will want a skilled defense team reviewing the evidence to make sure that everything was properly handled and processed and that no mistakes were made.

Source: patch.com, “Krispy Kreme Glaze Mistaken For Meth: Man Arrested Sues Orlando“, Sherri Lonon, April 20, 2017

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