Pasco Violent Crime Lawyer

Brad Post: Alright. Welcome to the floridadefense.com podcast. We are speaking to Pasco County (Florida) violent crimes lawyer Mike Kenny. Mike, how are you doing today?

Michael D. Kenny, Attorney: I’m doing well. How are you doing?

B: Doing well. Doing well. Well, we’re going to be talking basically about violent crimes today. And, so, I’m going to turn it over to you.

M: Okay. Alright. Well violent crimes is kind of a big category. It covers a lot of things. We could start talking a little bit about assault charges and battery charges. In the state of Florida, they are separate charges actually. Assault is one act, and battery is another act. In Florida, an assault is essentially a threat. It’s a threat where a person makes a threat to make contact or do some type of physical harm to another individual, and has the apparent ability to carry out that threat. Usually that comes up where a person maybe raises a fist in an argument with somebody else, and looks like he’s about to take a swing or punch somebody. That’s your classic assault. In the state of Florida, a misdemeanor assault like this is a second-degree misdemeanor. That means it is punishable by a maximum of 60 days in jail, or six months of probation. Now, what bumps that assault up is depending upon who the person that’s threatened is. So, if you do that same act, and you raise your fist like you’re about the strike somebody, but the other person happens to be a law enforcement officer, that’s assault on law-enforcement officer. So it takes it from a second-degree misdemeanor to a first-degree misdemeanor. Still a misdemeanor - punishable by up to a year in jail as opposed to 60 days initially for your probation.

Battery is a first-degree misdemeanor. And battery is what most people may understand what that is already. That’s just the physical touching or the contact another person that’s unwarranted, done without that person’s consent. So it’s either offensive touching, or causing an injury to another person. And those are first-degree misdemeanor punishable up to a year in jail. That’s your basic section of misdemeanor crimes, violent crimes of assault and battery.

Then there’s all these little changes that can happen that can significantly enhance the crimes for misdemeanors to felonies. So, for instance, I talked about law-enforcement officer, and an assault on a law-enforcement officer being a first-degree misdemeanor. If a person commits an aggravated assault on law-enforcement officer, and that’s a situation where a person uses a weapon to threaten a law-enforcement officer, and a weapon could be anything that is capable of inflicting death or serious bodily harm. So, that could be a firearm. That could be a knife. That could be a baseball bat. Shoot that could be a car. Any one of those things. Then you’re talking about a felony with a three-year minimum mandatory prison sentence. So, there’s taking the fist and raising up like your going to strike the officer, and then threatening to do some harm is punished significantly more, and there’s actually a minimum amount of time a person will have to be in prison. It’s a third-degree felony punishable up to five years maximum. And finally, an aggravated battery on law-enforcement officer, that’s something that gives you a five-year minimum mandatory prison sentence. That’s a second degree felony. That’s where there is an actual battery, like we talked about before, but this time there’s a deadly weapon used, or weapon that can cause death or serious bodily harm. A regular battery of a law-enforcement officer is still felony, it’s a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in jail.

B: You mentioned that they don’t even have to this actually strike them it’s more for

M: Not for the assault. Not for the assault. Any time you hear term battery in the state of Florida that means contact has been made.

B: Okay.

M: When you hear the term assault that means it was either an attempted battery, or it was simply a threat. Assault means no physical contact has been made.

B: Does that include verbal threat?

M: Generally not.

B: Okay.

M: Generally, saying, “I’m going to kick your butt,” to somebody else in a conversation does not rise to the level of a crime.

B: Okay.

M: Thankfully. We’ve all been to football games, and baseball games, and any other event

B: Right.

M: Some people have not had the full judgement that they should normally have.

B: Right.

M: And, we don’t want to be arresting people for just running their mouth.

B: Yes.

M: But, there are some threats that you can make, that there are specific crimes for. Like threats online. Making threating phone calls. The words, in and of themselves, aren’t crimes, but it depends on how they are used. And there are certain categories, and boxes that you check off, that maybe it rises to the level of