The purpose of having a police force is to ensure the safety of the local community. Police are responsible for public safety, namely, making sure that people abide by the law and don’t cause harm to others. We teach our children to respect police officers, and appreciate the service they provide us.
In my experience practicing criminal and DUI law in Fort Lauderdale and all of South Florida, unfortunately, there are too many times when the police have the opposite effect—they make us feel unsafe.
A misunderstanding and a language barrier turned arrest in South Florida
For one of our clients, the police created a nightmare situation for him just because Spanish was his first language, and he had trouble understanding what they were yelling at him in English.
Before I jump into this story, I want to clarify that I’m not anti-cop. Not all cops are bad, and not all cops are good. That’s just the way it is. But I am anti-bad cop. And this case was one of those situations where the cop couldn’t care less about justice.
My client, Juan, was from Venezuela. He and his family had been in the U.S. for a few years already, but English was still difficult for him.
In his profession, he dealt mostly with South American companies, so at work and home he primarily spoke Spanish (which we all know is fairly common in South Florida, and certainly not out of the ordinary).
When Juan and his wife got into an argument one night over his 22-year-old stepson, who is a disciplinary nightmare who was still living at home, the stepson (who did not like Juan at all) called the police hoping to get Juan in trouble. Neither Juan nor his wife knew the police had even been called until an officer showed up on their doorstep.
Juan answered the door. His wife was standing a few feet behind him in the living room. Her face was flushed from yelling, but she had no bruising or marks anywhere on her body. The officer informed Juan that someone had called in to say there was a domestic violence situation.
Juan tried to explain that there must be a misunderstanding, but the officer refused to listen. He started firing off incriminating questions at Juan in English. When Juan tried to explain that he couldn’t understand what the officer was asking, the officer placed him under arrest.
Juan’s wife started protesting when she saw the officer take out his handcuffs. But the officer didn’t listen to her either. He hauled Juan out to the cop car and took him down to the station for booking for a domestic violence crime.
Once he saw the judge, Juan posted bail, but unfortunately, he could not go home. There was a no-contact order in place under the criminal domestic charges against him, meaning he was unable to initiate any kind of communication with his wife.
That’s where Rossen Law Firm comes into the situation.
Now, we were able to get the charges against Juan dismissed, but the damage was already done. He had a mugshot online, which is almost impossible to get rid of, he had a criminal charge against him - which goes on your record the moment you’re arrested, not the moment you’re convicted - spent the night in jail, and racked up expensive legal fees to pay. He also underwent a lot of stress, was afraid he might lose the ability to see his children, and was worried about potentially losing his job, too.
The really frustrating part of this situation is that if the cop had taken a few minutes to speak with Juan and his wife at their home, this whole awful situation could have been avoided.