Another Florida Man Arrested for Striking a Dog

Dwayne Croker Jr.

This time in Naples, a man was arrested and charged with striking a police dog. As in the case we reported this morning, a man named Dwayne Croker Jr. was running from the cops for other alleged crimes and got the K-9 released on him. Like our friend from North Fort Myers, he was probably fending off the dog when he hit it. So, instead of getting a misdemeanor paraphernalia charge- he ended up getting three! One for resisting for running from the cops, another for striking the K-9, and he still got the paraphernalia charge. As is so often the case, the cover up is worse than the crime!

I also not the CCSO sent up a helicopter. That’s quite an expense for a couple of misdemeanors, and it was a dog that eventually located and led to his detention. No indications of any injuries on this one.

Florida Man Gets Naked and Attacks Couple with Rake

Maurice Castaneda

Bill and Crystal Colwell were sitting at home minding their own business, when a naked man with a rake barged into their house. Crystal tossed a hatchet to her husband, but he grabbed a hammer out of his truck and “went to town” trying to fight the guy off. The guy, Maurice Castaneda, (or Castanedo) got several licks in with the rake, and Colwell suffered several lumps on the head and puncture wounds on his back and shoulder. The rake was shattered from the force of the attack.

Maurice Castanedo, via DOC

The Colwell’s suspect the suspect was on drugs. He retrieved his shorts from a nearby swamp and took off. Authorities called out the K-9 and helicopter, and were able to locate him a few streets over. He now faces charges for Burglary, Battery and Assault. Burglary with a Battery is a PBL (punishable by life offense) in Florida. I found a similar name in the Florida prison rolls: Maurice Castanedo has been to prison a couple of times: getting out for a robbery about 2 years ago. (There is another Castaneda, but that individual looks quite different- he happens to be on the sex offender registry). The distinctive Texas tattoo on this neck makes me fairly confident

“Castanedo” via rapsheets.org

this ‘Castaneda’ is the same as the Castanedo in the prison photos. The recent release date indicates he may be subject to being sentenced as a Prison Releasee Reoffender.

He may plead insanity, or try to use intoxication as a mitigating factor. Normally, voluntary intoxication is not a defense- but if it makes you so crazy as to eliminate intent, they might have a claim! Most likely, he’ll be back in prison for quite a while…

It’s a Crime to Bark at a Police Dog in Florida

Antonio Morrison Mug Shot

UF linebacker Antonio Morrison was arrested this weekend for barking at a police dog, and resisting/obstructing an officer. Florida has a statute dealing with police dogs which has several levels of offenses for what is done to the dog. Morrison is charged with the lowest level, which prohibits interfering, harassing, or teasing a police dog in the course of its duties. It can be a felony to kill or seriously injure a K-9. It doesn’t specifically say barking at the dog, but everybody knows that agitating a dog will cause that dog to react.

Morrison’s defense would be that the agitation did not occur in the course of the performance of the dog’s duties. The dog was apparently restrained in his handler’s squad car when the barking began. He did not prevent the dog from doing any of its duties if it was locked up in the squad car at the time of the incident. That’s a tough sell for the prosecutor. Morrison could also argue that he wasn’t intentionally or maliciously harassing the dog. He’s claiming that the dog barked at him, and he was only responding with a “woof woof” sound because the dog barked at him. He also has to deal with the obstruction charge.

This case would make a fun trial to watch, but it’s unlikely to go that far. Morrison probably has bigger concerns than this case, as he’s also facing a battery charge. 

Florida Football Player Arrested for Barking at a Police Dog

Antonio Morrison Mug Shot

UF Linebacker Antonio Morrison was arrested this weekend for barking at a police dog, and obstruction of justice, both misdemeanors. This is going to be bigger trouble due to a recent battery arrest, for which he received deferred prosecution. This new charge likely violates his diversion contract, and he will have to face charges for the original battery now. He has been suspended the first couple games of the season.

Coming Monday on this blog: Can they really arrest you for barking at a police dog? (yup)

“The Good Wife” season premiere is required viewing

I got hooked on “The Good Wife” last year, and have started going back through season 1 on DVD.  I have discussed Sunday’s episode earlier this week, for the Overzealous Police Seizure aspect of the story line.  Now that I have seen the episode, I can report that there are several criminal law issues of interest that they dealt with.  Among those most interesting: false K-9 alerts, profiling, recording police encounters, and of course the seizure issues that I’ve already talked about.  Most cases don’t have all of these issues rolled into the same case, but each of these issues come up all the time.

For now, check out the episode, and I will try to follow-up with the other issues in the future.  Until then, just consider the first encounter they have with the overzealous cop.  The cop stops them for an imagined infraction, and detains them long enough that Alicia misses an important meeting.  Without even getting into all the other problems with the situation, imagine if it was you missing an important work meeting because a cop felt like giving you a hard time.  It’s happened to me, and I’m not even in a class that is frequently profiled.  It can happen to you.

Also, how frustrating would it be for a cop to lie about the reason for a stop.  It’s one of the “white lie” variety that cops do all the time.  No biggie, until it happens to you.  I just had a client in my office who was horribly frustrated not that he got a ticket, but that the cop lied about the pretext of his stop.  The courts allow this kind of pretextual stop, and doing so practically encourages our law enforcement to lie.  There’s a famous case called “Whren” that says it doesn’t matter why the cops pull someone over, no matter what motive, as long as they provide the court with any valid reason for the stop.  It leads to innumerable profiling situations like the one depicted in “The Good Wife”.

http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/video/vihpinPms7Otn1uE_nAb_zPPyLuCpBCl/the-good-wife-i-fought-the-law

#thegoodwife #badcops