Florida Appellate Court Reverses Probation Violations for Non-Willful Violations

Last week a decision came out of Florida’s First District Court of Appeals that should provide some peace of mind to those unable to afford the cost of treatment and supervision.

The appellant was convicted of violating his probation for (1) failure to comply with his electronic monitoring, (2) failure to comply with sex offender treatment, and (3) failure to pay cost of supervision fees.

The appellant walked away from his ankle monitor base station for approximately five minutes while it was charging. The appellant could not cover the $90 cost for his sex offender treatment session and the therapist would not allow for partial payment. And the appellant could not afford the $4.50 daily cost of supervision because despite looking for employment, could not get a job.

The court found: Evidence that a probationer walked away from a monitoring device for a brief period of time is not competent, substantial evidence of a substantial and willful violation. In probation revocation proceedings for failure to pay a monetary obligation as a condition of probation, the trial court must find that the defendant’s failure to pay was willful—i.e., the defendant has, or has had, the ability to pay the obligation and purposefully did not do so.’ The failure to attend sex offender treatment is not willful if the probationer failed to attend due to a lack of ability to pay.