In Archie v. State, a case decided last week in Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeals, we are reminded that probation violations (unlike registration violations) need to be willful and substantial.
Archie, who was on sex offender probation, was violated for (among other things) traveling outside his county without the approval of his probation officer. Although he was wearing a GPS monitor that was supposed to alert him when he traveled outside the county, the alerts were not turned on that day. When Archie accompanied a friend to pick up another person who apparently lived in a neighboring county, the GPS detected the activity and ultimately he was violated for it.
Case law precedent states that probation can be revoked upon a finding that a violation is willful and substantial. In order for something to be willful, it needs to be done knowingly. The Appellate Court found that, “no evidence was presented indicating that there was signage on the road that would have alerted Appellant that he was traveling into Sumter County. The State could not establish that Appellant willfully violated his probation without introducing evidence that he knowingly left Marion County.”
Many probation-related questions are asked by members who have been threatened with violations for petty infractions they may have done unknowingly. When faced with such a scenario, know that in order to be violated, the violation must be willful and substantial and unless there is evidence it was done knowingly, you can’t willfully do something you are unaware of.
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Probation is punishment yet you have to willfully violate to be punished, but on the registry you can be violated for ignorance or an act of omission…….. so what does that make the registry then?
Probation? Been off paper for twenty years, from a two year probation till under compliance. Ruined my Forties and now my Fifties, im sick and tired of not being a free man.
And under its current rules, the FL registry will continue to negatively impact you posthumously.
I have tried to locate this decision and cannot seem to find it. Could you please give an internet location so I can keep it in my file. Thank you
https://edca.5dca.org/DCADocs/2018/0665/180665_1259_01252019_08452862_i.pdf
Funny how it sounds like the case
My boyfriend caught in 2001.
Met a girl in a club who lied about her age n dated Her until she turned out to be 15,
The Scary! Part was he was staying
With her n her mom n she knew
His age. The cuorts say not knowing is not a defense but my question thinking out loud is why?
Wasn’t the mom charged ?
Parents should be held accountable for their children’s actions and behavior . especially
If u let them do n go where ever they want. The cuorts should look at theses cases the same way like they just did with this probation violation.
I realize this is a State case and not Federal. That being said, congratulations to all those on the winning side of this. But I think something should be said about Federal cases in terms of the word “knowing” and it’s derivatives. The feds play by a different rule book. So where someone says “violation must be willful and substantial and unless there is evidence it was done knowingly, you can’t willfully do something you are unaware of” my experience in the Federal system counsels otherwise. I was indicted, convicted and sentenced on a single count for “knowingly” possessing child pornography on a computer shared by at least one other person. The feds argued I must have known it was there because the IP address was in my name without any direct evidence of criminal intent. In the Federal system, “knowing” takes on a whole new meaning so please be careful.
I spent 19 days in jail a few years ago for going to a restaurant that was within 1000 feet of a childcare center that I didn’t even know existed. It was also on a Sunday evening and the center was closed and empty. What a ‘threat’ I was!
How did they possibly know?
GPS monitoring that was costing me $360 a month. What a joyous day that was when they cut it off…9 years of living with it. It damaged the nerves in my ankle. I can still feel as though it is there after 4 months. I was hoping they would sell me the ‘mini-brick’, as I called it, so I could take it out into the parking lot and smash it with a hammer. It would have been worth the cost.
Omg how are you supposed to reasonably know where these thigs are?
I have heard that there are even towns on the east coast of Florida where there are city ordinances which prohibit any registrant from even driving through that city. Face it people, what they ready want is for all of us to move out of the state so we are not their problem. I have even had a prospective employer ask me why I even stay in Florida and why I don’t get out of here. My family is here or I would be long gone.
You have to guess at it and guess right. When they first started you could ask probation to verify a location but it got too cumbersome so they passed the buck to the sheriff’s department which gave it up after about two weeks. I finally got to the point where I knew where the ‘safe’ places were and I went to only those places for years. I had to drive 37 miles one-way to find a ‘safe’ barbershop. I guess probation had the time to waste violating people for such puny violations. A sheriff’s rep told me they don’t have time to track down people in a ‘restricted zone’ grocery store buying food.
I live in Florida but I work in South Carolina for 7 months . I bought a new truck in South Carolina in 2016. I got a South Carolina drivers license and plated the truck in South Carolina.
This year I was told by a Registration Deputy Sheriff that , ” if I live in Florida that I have to have my truck plated and registered in Florida”. That I can’t have an out of state plate if I live in Florida. Does anyone know anything about this…or where I can find out if this is really true.
Ask the registration deputy for the statute that says that.
In my experience, the usual answer provided by any LE official (cop or PO) to that question is “I don’t know or have time to look it up. Do it or you’re under arrest.” My usual response is “Well, you’d make the time to look it up to make out the warrant, wouldn’t you?”
It may cost you a few hours at the station, but in my mind you’re better off challenging LE when they make such assertions.
My parents were residents of Florida when I joined the Navy. I claimed Florida as my home the whole time I was in the Navy…and had Florida tags on my cars. When I retired in Virginia I had to get Virginia tags. That is basically what I know about the subject.
Florida Address Florida DL, Florida DL Florida Plate,been such since beginning of Tax Collector
I am NOT a lawyer: In most cases, a vehicle must be plated where it is kept overnight. If you are registered in Florida, then your truck is supposed to be plated in Florida. If you create an LLC and your LLC purchases a vehicle for its employee to use: you, then the truck is registered to your business in South Carolina. Interestingly enough, the vehicle can be registered to your company name. Imagine if your company name is: “Robert Grove Tree Service”, you can carry around credit cards and vehicle registration as “Robert Grove” with an address in South Carolina.
That does not sound right, The law says where your reside at is your address. Don’t quote me, but I feel you were mislead why take the chance on somebody’s say so. It is your freedom not the person’s who fed you the information. If I were living there(Fla). I would be walking a straight line because you never know when some cop will pull you over and sass you about something, finding nothing on you Might make something up.. That is like out west You need to have your ID on you when you go out the door. I put my Id in ziploc bag when I go swimming You never know till it happens
In my 20 years in the “SYSTEM” in Florida I have never heard of a PD getting anyone off from a VOP because of the reasons stated here. Most of us can’t afford paid quality representation and thus are dependent on the PD’s available with their horrendous case loads that just want to clear their cases as quickly as possible. I did have a really good attorney once on a technical violation of registration rules and things went very well for me. Very much unlike the clown I hired on my original conviction or my VOP. In all three cases the PD’s did NOTHING to benefit me even once.
So too should registration violations be willful to be charged. Too many things easy to forget.
Unfortunately registration violations are strict liability offenses.
US v Kantor does provide a “good faith” defense which requires showing that the defendant affirmatively had reason to believe that they were not committing a crime, not simply a lack of knowledge that they were.
FDLE does a decent job of notifying us of changes in the law, so I’m sure this would be tough to use, but it’s good to know!