Miami Criminal Lawyers Blog

Officers in Broward County set up a sting operation to bring in suspects on the run. Letters were sent out to alleged fugitives granting hoaxed stimulus money. The fugitives were asked to contact a representative for an appointment and then show up at a location hosted by the South Florida Stimulus Coalition to claim their funds. Officers were waiting in the wings and arrested the suspects upon arrival.

The two day operation "Show Me the Money" resulted in the arrest of 75 fugitives. The defendants faced charges of felony attempted murder to grand theft auto. A spokesperson for the Broward County Sherriff's Office stated that this productive sting operation promoted safety for all those involved by arresting suspects in a controlled atmosphere. In addition, the sting saved countless man hours and tax dollars by negating the necessity of tracking suspects who were running from the law.

 

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Miami- Dalia Dippolito, 26, is out on $25,000 bond as well as on house arrest at her mother's home after she was charged with solicitation to commit first-degree murder. 

After six months of marriage to Michael Dippolito, she had decided that she would be "very happy" if her husband were no longer here.   In a surveillance tape on file with the Boynton Beach Police Department, Dippolito talks about wanting to "have her husband dead, that she is 5,000 percent sure that she wants this done." 

Dippolito hired a hit man an undercover police officer to kill her husband.   A plan was set in place after meeting with the undercover officer relative to her husband's schedule, her alibi, getaway routes, security system and the exchange of $3,000 in cash to include the key to the couple's home.

After an obscure phone call from a police officer which urged Dippolito to return home from LA Fitness.    Dippolito arrived home where the police were where she had envisioned, where she was in the midst of a crime scene.  What Dippolito did not know was that she was about to be faced with an ornate deception. A setting that was bizarre at best, the Boynton Police had taken dramatic steps relative to orchestrating an exhibition, a misrepresented performance.  The crime scene was staged. To include Dippolito being videotaped as a detective broke the news that her husband was dead. In a statement made by a Boynton Beach Police Department spokesperson; "the bottom line is we wanted her to believe without question that when she arrived that her husband was dead."   The recorded performance was posted to the police department's YouTube channel.

In addition the TV show COPS had been present with cameras rolling.   COPS had been in town and were engaged in a ride along with Boynton Police according to reports. However, a spokesperson for the department stated that "their presence was not prearranged."

Across the country Police Departments participate in the Ride- Along- Program.  It is claimed to ameliorate public relations by way of enlightening participants with the variegated and incalculable nature of police work.  Nevertheless, the program does not annotate the possible violation of Fourth Amendment rights when participating in a Ride-Along.  

If you have been charged with murder or with solicitation to commit first-degree murder immediately contact a criminal defense attorney.  Musca Law takes pride in providing their clients with the best defense possible and are dedicated to ensuring that their clients receive a fair trial.  Musca Law is committed to providing a staunch defense at every stage of the proceedings against you.

Kidnapping is a difficult ordeal for any victim to endure. The response of kidnapping victims has been studied by psychologists at least since the famous Norrmalmstorg robbery in Sweden in 1973. An armed convict named Jan Erik Olsson, who was on leave from prison, attempted a bank heist at Norrmalmstorg Square in Stockholm on August 23. He took four people hostage and demanded large sums of money. He also wanted to speak to a close friend of his, Clark Oloffson, who was also a convict.

Swedish police let Oloffson in, establishing communication with Olsson. The pair and the hostages were in the main vault of the bank, which the convicts barricaded. By August 26, law enforcement officers had succeeded in drilling a hole through the vault ceiling. Although Olsson repeatedly threatened to kill the hostages should police attempt to use gas to get them out, when police actually did so on August 28, Olsson gave up after half an hour.

One of the most interesting things to come out of the hostage situation was the degree to which the hostages apparently sympathized with their captors. Oloffson's conviction for his role was overturned, as he claimed he did not aid Olsson's actions and instead wanted only to keep the peace during the ordeal. Famously, Oloffson and hostage Kristin Enmark became friends after the crisis ended.

The hostages' inclination to empathize with their captors has been dubbed Stockholm syndrome. The victims in the Norrmalmstorg robbery reported that they were more afraid of the police than of the men holding them hostage, with Enmark even calling the Swedish Prime Minister from the bank vault to chastise him for the police methods employed.

Of course, not all hostages identify with their captors:



If you have been arrested for a crime in Miami or elsewhere in Florida, contact the criminal defense attorneys at Musca Law to begin your legal defense.

A Miami woman has been accused of setting up an elaborate plot to extort a ransom from her ex-husband. Alejandra Arriaza, 39, went to Wal-Mart with her 17-year-old son to purchase an iPhone. Arriaza deliberately left her car doors unlocked so that the kidnapping ploy could begin.

While they were inside the store, Arriaza's boyfriend, Angel Ponce, 39, snuck into the backseat of the car. He wore a mask to cover his face. When Arriaza and her son returned to the vehicle, Ponce pretended to be kidnapping the pair, brandishing a fake weapon. Ponce covered the teen's eyes with tape.

As part of the scheme, Ponce gave Arriaza driving directions, taking them to his mobile home in Miami. There, the teenaged son was bound to a chair. Arriaza, Ponce, and Arriaza's 29-year-old nephew, Joel Boza, left her son tied up inside the closet for the entire night.

Ponce purchased two cell phones before they launched the fake kidnapping. He kept one and hid the other inside the truck belonging to the boy's father, Arriaza's ex-husband. They then made contact by the father by calling him on that cell phone. The father, in turn, contacted police, who recorded the phone conversations.

On the phone, Arriaza implored her former husband to pay the captors their

ransom, stating that they were burning their son with a blow torch. In fact, they singed the hair off his leg with it, but did not actually injure him. Meanwhile, Miami law enforcement officials were tracking the other phone, which eventually led them to Ponce's trailer.

Ponce was arrested and confessed to the scheme, implicating Arriaza. The boy was not in on the scheme. He told police that he and Arriaza had hoped to extort funds from the ex-husband, who had recently sold his business at a profit. Now, Ponce, Arriaza, and Boza all face kidnapping charges in federal court. The charges carry a maximum of a life sentence.

The original report is available here.

One of the most important rights a criminal defendant has is the right to be tried by an impartial jury of his peers. In criminal cases in Florida, that means that a person who has been charged with a crime which is punishable by more than six months in jail can elect to go to trial with a jury of twelve regular people who have nothing to do with the case. If he so prefers, he can choose to have a bench trial, which is one where the judge decides if the prosecution has proved the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The meaning of trial by a jury of one's peers has changed significantly during the history of the United States. For example, until relatively recently, many juries were all-white as a matter of course. Now, an attorney cannot strike a potential juror on the basis of his race. For example, a prosecutor trying to convict an African-American defendant might try to assure that all of the jurors were white, in an attempt to play up racial biases among the jurors. Now, an attorney who seeks to remove a potential juror can be questioned about his motives to ensure that no juror is struck on the basis of his race. The attorney must provide an adequate, non-racially motivated reason for wishing to strike the potential jury from the jury pool.

Jurors are selected from registered voters. Women did not get the right to vote in Florida until 1921 and they could not serve on juries. Beginning in 1949, women were permitted to volunteer for jury service. Surprisingly, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional in 1961, excluding women because they were perceived to be "the center of home and family life." The Florida legislature did not make jury service mandatory for women until 1967. The Supreme Court later reversed its decision.