Criminal Defense

Criminal Defense Attorneys Fighting for Your Future

A criminal charge can turn your life upside down overnight. Beyond the risk of jail time and fines, a conviction can affect your job, your housing, your family, and your reputation in the community for years to come. At the Law Office of Michael P. Maddux, P.A., we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all defense. Every case starts with a chain of decisions made by police, prosecutors, and the court. Each one is a chance for the right defense strategy to change the outcome. Whether your case is in state court, federal court, or the juvenile system, here is how we approach it.

The Hours After an Arrest Matter

What you say, what evidence gets collected, and how quickly you get a lawyer involved can all shape the rest of your case. We move quickly to understand the circumstances of the arrest or investigation, protect you from further questioning, and start identifying constitutional issues, like an unlawful search or an improper stop, before they get buried in paperwork.

State, Federal, and Juvenile Defense

Criminal cases move through very different systems depending on where they are filed and who is involved.

State charges are handled in Hillsborough County and surrounding state courts under Florida law. The U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecutes federal charges, which often carry mandatory minimum sentences, leaving far less room for negotiation and making early, aggressive representation critical. Juvenile cases follow their own track, with separate records protections and a system built around rehabilitation rather than punishment alone.

We know that defending a federal fraud case looks nothing like defending a juvenile in delinquency court, and we build our strategy around the system your case is actually in.

DUI Defense

A DUI arrest can lead to license suspension, fines, mandatory education programs, and even jail time, even for a first offense. Prosecutors lean heavily on breath test results, field sobriety exercises, and officer observations, but we can challenge each of these. We examine whether the stop was lawful, whether the testing equipment was properly calibrated, and whether procedure was followed from the stop through the arrest.

Drug Crime Charges

Penalties for drug charges in Florida depend heavily on the type and amount of substance involved, where the offense allegedly occurred, and your prior record. Charges range from simple possession to trafficking, which carries mandatory minimum sentences. We scrutinize how officers obtained the evidence and look for opportunities to suppress evidence, pursue diversion programs, or negotiate a reduced charge.

Fraud and White Collar Crime

Fraud and white collar allegations often involve complex financial records and lengthy investigations before charges are ever filed. These cases call for an attorney who can dig into the documentation and find the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case. We represent clients facing fraud schemes, identity theft, and related financial crimes, from the investigation stage through trial if necessary.

Theft, Robbery, and Property Crimes

Florida groups an enormous range of conduct under its theft and robbery laws, from shoplifting to carjacking to stealing copper wire from a utility pole. The penalties vary enormously depending on exactly what was taken, its value, and how the taking happened. We handle the full spectrum of these charges and know where to look for the details that change everything about a case.

How Florida Defines Theft

Florida defines theft as knowingly obtaining or using someone else’s property, with intent to permanently or temporarily deprive them of it or to appropriate it for yourself or someone else (Fla. Stat. § 812.014(1)). The charge escalates based on value.

Prosecutors charge first-degree grand theft when the property is worth $100,000 or more, or for certain cargo and aggravated conduct. Second-degree grand theft covers $20,000 to $100,000, or theft of emergency medical or law enforcement equipment. A third category, third-degree grand theft, covers $750 to $20,000, along with specific items like firearms, motor vehicles, wills, and controlled substances regardless of value (§ 812.014(2)(a)-(c)).

Theft from a dwelling gets special, harsher treatment even at low dollar values (§ 812.014(2)(d)-(e)). Below the felony thresholds, the charge becomes petit theft, but petit theft penalties escalate quickly with repeat convictions, reaching felony status by a third offense regardless of value (§ 812.014(3)). Stealing $1,000 or more from a person 65 or older is separately reclassified upward, with mandatory restitution and community service (§ 812.0145).

Retail Theft and Special Categories

Florida has a separate, detailed framework for theft connected to retail stores, farms, and public transit (§ 812.015). Merchants, farmers, and transit employees have specific legal authority to detain someone they have probable cause to believe committed theft. The statute shields them from false arrest liability when they follow its procedures.

Organized retail theft, coordinated theft across multiple locations or by multiple people, or theft aggregating $750 or more within a 120-day period, can be charged as a felony. Prior convictions, higher dollar amounts, or firearm involvement can escalate penalties further (§ 812.015(8)-(11)). Tampering with a fuel dispenser to steal gas, known as retail fuel theft, is its own separate felony (§ 812.0151). Some sheriff’s offices have special agricultural units to investigate these crimes.

Trafficking, Inferences, and Related Theft Offenses

Trafficking in property you know or should know was stolen is a second-degree felony, and organizing or directing the underlying theft while also trafficking in the stolen property is a first-degree felony (§ 812.019). Selling stolen property online, when you know or reasonably should know it was stolen, is its own separate charge (§ 812.0195). Beyond that, Florida law creates legal inferences that can work against a defendant: possessing recently stolen property, buying or selling property far below market value, or a dealer acquiring property outside the normal course of business, can each give rise to an inference of knowledge that the property was stolen, unless satisfactorily explained (§ 812.022).

Robbery and Related Offenses

Robbery is taking property from a person through force, violence, assault, or putting them in fear (§ 812.13(1)). A robbery becomes a first-degree felony punishable by up to life if the offender carries a firearm or deadly weapon. Carrying any other weapon still makes it a first-degree felony, and an unarmed robbery is a second-degree felony (§ 812.13(2)).

Florida also defines related offenses with their own penalty structures. Robbery by sudden snatching doesn’t require force beyond what’s needed to grab the property, just that the victim became aware of the taking, and it is a second-degree felony if armed, third-degree if not (§ 812.131). The carjacking statute applies the same force and fear framework specifically to taking a motor vehicle, and it is a first-degree felony whether or not a weapon was involved (§ 812.133). Home-invasion robbery applies when someone enters a dwelling intending to rob its occupants and does so. Florida always charges it as a first-degree felony regardless of whether a weapon was used (§ 812.135).

Utility Theft and Infrastructure Crimes

Prosecutors charge tampering with utility meters or equipment to steal electricity, gas, or water as theft under the general theft statute, with penalties scaled to the value stolen (§ 812.14). Property owners who knowingly allow tenants to use illegally connected utilities face their own separate misdemeanor (§ 812.14(5), (7)). Theft or tampering involving critical infrastructure, power plants, water treatment facilities, ports, airports, and similar sites, carries its own felony charges for tampering, unauthorized computer access, and trespass (§ 812.141).

Taking copper or other nonferrous metals from a utility or communications services provider in a way that causes damage or interrupts service is a first-degree felony. Removing copper or other nonferrous metals from an electrical substation without authorization is also a first-degree felony. The statute charges this separately (§ 812.145).

Trade Secrets and Other Property Crimes

Stealing a trade secret is a third-degree felony, and trafficking in a stolen trade secret is a second-degree felony, each enhanced by one degree if done to benefit a foreign government or foreign entity (§ 812.081). Unauthorized interception or theft of cable, satellite, or other communications services, or possessing devices designed to enable that theft, carries penalties ranging from a misdemeanor to a felony depending on the scale and intent involved (§ 812.15).

Obtaining rented or leased property through trick or fraud, or failing to return it as agreed, is a crime. It scales from misdemeanor to third-degree felony based on the property’s value (§ 812.155). A “chop shop” is any place where someone alters, dismantles, or disguises a stolen motor vehicle or its major parts, or any place where investigators find two or more stolen vehicles, or major parts from two or more stolen vehicles. Owning, operating, or knowingly aiding a chop shop is a third-degree felony, and a conviction can also carry restitution to the vehicle’s owner or their insurer, along with forfeiture of the shop’s tools and any stolen vehicles or parts found on site (§ 812.16).

Because so many of these charges hinge on precise dollar valuations, specific categories of property, or particular methods of taking, a charge that looks straightforward on paper often has real room to challenge. This might involve how the state valued the property, whether the “inference” provisions actually apply to your situation, or whether the facts actually support the specific enhancement the state is relying on. Those same kinds of details, how a stop happened and who conducted it, matter just as much before a case ever gets to the merits of the charge.

Jurisdiction and Traffic Stop Validity Challenges

Not every officer who pulls you over has the legal authority to do it. Florida law carefully limits which agencies and individuals can enforce traffic laws, and where. When an officer exceeds that authority, we can challenge the stop, citation, or arrest that followed. We look closely at who actually made the stop in your case and whether they had the legal authority to do it.

Agencies With Broad Traffic Enforcement Authority

Florida law gives broad traffic enforcement authority to certain agencies: the Florida Highway Patrol, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s law enforcement division, the Department of Environmental Protection’s law enforcement division, and FDLE agents statewide (Fla. Stat. § 316.640(1)(a)1.a.); county sheriff’s offices throughout their county (§ 316.640(2)(a)); and municipal police departments within their city (§ 316.640(3)(a)). These are the officers most people expect to be pulling them over. For the most part, their authority is broad.

Officers With Limited Enforcement Authority

Some officers only have traffic enforcement authority in specific places. University police officers can only enforce traffic laws on or within 1,000 feet of university property, or under a mutual aid agreement. They can pursue a vehicle further, though, if the pursuit began within that zone (§ 316.640(1)(a)1.b.). Under that same 1,000-foot rule, Florida College System police officers operate the same way (§ 316.640(1)(a)1.c.). Airport authority police, meanwhile, can only enforce traffic laws on airport property (§ 316.640(1)(a)1.d.).

If a stop happened outside the geographic zone these officers may patrol, and no mutual aid agreement or valid hot pursuit applies, that’s worth examining closely. Base military police, while not state actors, can also assert jurisdiction for civilian offenses on military bases.

Beyond these, Florida law creates several categories of personnel with narrow enforcement powers who cannot make arrests or carry weapons: parking enforcement specialists (§ 316.640(1)(a)1.f.I-II, (2)(c), (3)(c)), traffic accident/crash investigation officers who can issue citations at a crash scene but nothing more (§ 316.640(1)(a)3., (2)(b), (3)(b)), toll enforcement officers limited to enforcing toll payment (§ 316.640(1)(b)2.), traffic control officers who can only direct traffic at a fixed location under a qualified officer’s direction (§ 316.640(4)), and traffic infraction enforcement officers limited to noncriminal traffic infractions (§ 316.640(5)). A serious jurisdictional problem arises if any of these limited-authority personnel went beyond what the statute allows. This includes making an arrest, carrying out an investigatory stop, or acting outside their assigned scope.

The law also explicitly prohibits any traffic enforcement agency from establishing a citation quota (§ 316.640(8)(b)). While this doesn’t usually form the basis of a standalone defense, it can be relevant context when examining an officer’s motivation or a pattern of enforcement in a particular case.

Why Unauthorized Stops Matter

A stop, citation, or arrest made by someone without the legal authority to make it isn’t just a technicality. It can affect the admissibility of everything that came after it. Our review covers exactly who conducted your stop, what agency they worked for, where the stop occurred, and whether any special jurisdiction or mutual aid agreement actually applied. We also examine the underlying grounds for the stop and provide a full Fourth Amendment analysis.

Fourth Amendment Challenges to Traffic Stops

A jurisdictional problem is only one way a stop can fall apart. Separately, the stop itself has to satisfy the Fourth Amendment. Under Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996), a traffic stop is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment whenever an officer has probable cause to believe a traffic violation has occurred, even if a reasonable officer would not have made the stop for that reason alone.

The Supreme Court held that an officer’s subjective motivation, including a hidden interest in investigating something unrelated to the traffic violation, does not invalidate a stop that is otherwise justified by probable cause. It also rejected the argument that courts should ask whether the stop deviated from standard police practice, holding that this kind of test is really just an indirect way of asking about pretext, which the Court has consistently refused to do.

What this means for a defense is narrower than it might sound. Whren forecloses two arguments. A defendant cannot argue a stop was invalid because the officer’s real motive was something other than the traffic violation, or because the stop did not match typical department practice. It does not foreclose a challenge to whether probable cause for the underlying traffic violation actually existed in the first place. If the facts do not support the violation the officer claims to have observed, the stop fails on its own terms regardless of motive.

Building Your Defense

Once we understand the full picture, we get to work. This means reviewing the evidence, questioning how officers obtained it, and preparing whichever path serves you best, whether that is a motion to suppress, a negotiated resolution, or trial. We will keep you updated on what happens next.

Talk to a Tampa Criminal Defense Attorney Today

If you or someone you love is facing a criminal charge or investigation, the most important step is getting a lawyer involved before saying anything else to police. Contact the Law Office of Michael P. Maddux, P.A. today to talk through your situation and figure out your next move.