Jacksonville Violent Offense Lawyers

LGL has an experienced Jacksonville violent crime defense attorney ready to help you.  Allegations of assault, battery, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, murder and more can have devastating consequences.  Not only is your freedom at risk, but future employment and housing opportunities, fines, felony convictions, loss of gun rights, negative impact on family law or civil cases, effect on your relationship with family and friends, and many other collateral consequences are all potential consequences.  Jeremy Lasnetski at LGL understands this.  That's why we take every case seriously and put our vast criminal law experience at your disposal.  If you have been accused of or charged with a violent offense, no matter how serious or how minor, give us a call to discuss your case and what we can do for you. 

I’ve been accused of a violent crime, but I haven’t been arrested yet.  What should I do?

You should remember these two statements: I want a lawyer.  I want to remain silent.  Once you say these two things, law enforcement can no longer pressure you or question you.  Why wouldn’t you want to tell them your side of the story?   Because you are set up to fail.  If you are a suspect, police suspect you committed a crime.  They are going to take any statements that they believe help establish your guilt and commit them to the police report while they discard statements that you are not guilty.  Even if they do put your statements of innocence into a police report, those statements are not admissible in court.  Statements against your interest are considered reliable, while statements for your own interests are not. 

Also, we are not computers.  Our memories are not perfect.  We make statements based on our memory and often come to find out that we remembered things incorrectly.  Law enforcement will use those incorrect statements as admissions, or as evidence that you were lying and trying to cover up the truth.  It is important not to speak to law enforcement, who will treat it as an official statement, that can later be used against you in court. 

If you retain a criminal defense attorney to represent you, that attorney can contact law enforcement and the State Attorney’s Office on your behalf.  The attorney can get your side of the story out without your own statements being used against you at trial.  The attorney can also make sure the facts, dates, times, etc. are accurate before giving them to law enforcement.  Therefore, you can have your cake and eat it too.

I acted in self defense.  Should I be concerned?

Yes.  Law enforcement is supposed to make a determination during the investigation whether you are immune from prosecution based on self defense.  Unfortunately, law enforcement rarely investigates self defense.  Typically, they will make the arrest and leave it to the court system.  Your attorney can file a motion based on that immunity defense and a judge would determine whether you are immune from prosecution based on self defense.  Finally, if a judge denied that motion, you would raise self defense as a defense at trial and it would be up to the jury to determine if you were not guilty by reason of self defense. 

Click a link below to learn more about the various violent crime laws in Florida.