If you have been charged with criminal mischief in Florida, you must hire a property damage attorney immediately. You may be facing jail or prison time if convicted of the charge(s). In some instances, criminal mischief may be deemed a felony conviction, affecting you for the rest of your life.
Do not wait to go to court before hiring a lawyer. Do not wait to be summoned and do not wait to be placed in jail. Every moment you spend without a criminal defense attorney is time spent by the prosecutor building a case against you. You need an experienced legal team, such as Weinstein Legal Team, working on your case as soon as possible to help reduce or dismiss your charges. You may lose your chance at securing a negotiated deal or dismissal of charges if you do not hire a lawyer immediately.
Don't let a criminal mischief charge cost you your freedom, future job opportunities, or future housing. As with any criminal conviction, the charge will appear on your public record. It will be accessible to anyone who runs a background check on you. Many places of employment and housing authorities have policies against hiring felons. These policies make it even more vital that you seek the help of a legal defense team as soon as possible.
What is Criminal Mischief?
Criminal mischief in Florida is defined as when a person "willfully and maliciously injures or damages by any means any real set of personal property belonging to another." There are many different types of criminal mischief. The full extent of the law can be found on the state of Florida's official government website under Fla. Stat. s. 806.13.
The term property includes a wide variety of items, not just buildings. A person may be charged with criminal mischief for damaging anything that belongs to someone other than themselves. Criminal mischief in Florida applies to city and state property and buildings.
If the damage is caused to another person's vehicle, land, or personal items with purposeful and malicious intent, you may be charged with criminal mischief.
Criminal Mischief Charges
The grade of a criminal mischief charge under Fla. Stat. s. 806.13 turns on the dollar value of the damage, not on what was used to cause it. The kind of property does matter in a few specific places: a place of worship, a memorial or historic property, and graffiti each have their own subsection with their own threshold.
Charges for criminal mischief are as follows:
- Damage of $200 or less is a second-degree misdemeanor under Fla. Stat. s. 806.13(1)(b)1., carrying up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine
- Damage greater than $200 but less than $1,000 is a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to 1 year in jail and a $1,000 fine
- Damage of $1,000 or more is a third-degree felony, carrying up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine
- Interrupting a business operation or a public service is a third-degree felony only if restoring it costs $1,000 or more in labor and supplies
- A misdemeanor charge is reclassified as a third-degree felony if the person has one or more previous convictions under Fla. Stat. s. 806.13
- Damage of more than $200 to a church, synagogue, mosque or other place of worship, or to a religious article inside it, is a third-degree felony under s. 806.13(2)
- Damage of more than $200 to a memorial or historic property is a third-degree felony under s. 806.13(3), and the court must order restitution for the full cost of repair or replacement
- Graffiti carries a mandatory fine of at least $250 for a first conviction, $500 for a second and $1,000 for a third, plus at least 40 hours of community service
Fla. Stat. s. 806.13 reaches further than the tiers above. A person who unlawfully occupies or trespasses on a residential dwelling or commercial property and intentionally causes $1,000 or more in damage commits a second-degree felony under s. 806.13(4), carrying up to 15 years in prison. Projecting an image onto a building without the owner's written consent is a first-degree misdemeanor under s. 806.13(7). If a minor commits a graffiti offense, Fla. Stat. s. 806.13(9)(c) makes the parent or legal guardian liable along with the minor for the fine, and s. 806.13(10) lets the court direct the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to withhold or revoke the minor's driver license for up to 1 year.
How Can a Criminal Mischief Charge be Proven in Court?
Since criminal mischief charges are heard in court before a judge, you must hire a lawyer to represent you in defense for criminal mischief. A criminal defense attorney may be able to negotiate a plea deal or have your charges dropped or reduced before you even have to appear in court. Don't take your chances to see what happens before contacting a lawyer.
Criminal mischief can be proven in a variety of ways. First, the most damaging form of evidence is video surveillance footage. Many public places and private residences have cameras installed for this very reason. If you are caught on camera committing a crime, it is even more imperative that you hire a legal defense team to negotiate on your behalf.
Another way that property damage charges may be proven is through eye witness testimony. If a neighbor, passerby, or employee believes that they saw you committing criminal mischief, contacts the police and identifies you, it may be used against you in court. Eye witness testimonies are not always reliable, and an experienced defense team knows how to dispute these claims.
As a criminal charge, the burden of proof falls on the prosecutor. What this means is that it is their job to provide enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt, proving you committed such crimes with malicious intent.
Intent means that a person committed such acts to cause damage. It was not an accident. The action may have been premeditated or spontaneous.
Penalties for Criminal Mischief
The penalties for property damage charges vary greatly based on the charge incurred. They range from fines, driver's license suspension, and probation, to prison time. The severity of penalties associated with different criminal mischief charges makes it vital to hire a criminal defense lawyer.
A Florida property crime lawyer may be able to speak with the prosecutor and have charges reduced, avoiding a court trial and potentially avoiding jail or prison time. If you think you are sure to face jail or prison time, it is even more essential that you hire a lawyer. A defense lawyer will aggressively defend your rights. Facing jail or prison time does not always have to be the case when you have adequate defense representation on your side.
Defense for Criminal Mischief in Florida
It is possible to have charges for criminal mischief in Florida reduced or dropped with the help of an experienced attorney. If an eye witness has accused you, your defense lawyer will likely ask you to provide the name and contact information of an individual who can provide an alibi. If you were somewhere else that had surveillance at the time the act took place, it could be corroborated via video footage that you were not there. Your lawyer can subpoena that footage. Having such video footage is nearly indisputable evidence that you did not commit the crime of which you are accused.
Other possible defenses against property damage charges include presenting the possibility that the act was an accident. As the law states that criminal mischief must be conducted willfully and intentionally, an accident does not qualify as a criminal act. Damage that happens during an argument is not automatically an accident. What matters is whether the state can prove the damage was willful and malicious rather than incidental.
Ownership is also worth examining. Fla. Stat. s. 806.13 reaches property belonging to another, so whether the defendant held any ownership interest in the item, and what that interest was, can matter to the charge. If the property was damaged during an act of self-defense, the charges might also be significantly reduced or dropped depending on the circumstances.
Seeking Legal Representation
If you are charged with criminal mischief in Florida or receive property damage charges, there are a wide variety of defenses that can be used in court. A defendant does not have to prove innocence. The state has to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the damage was willful and malicious and that it was worth enough to support the grade charged.
The longer you wait to seek representation, the more disadvantaged you will be, and you may lose your chance at negotiating a deal or dismissal. Do not let this happen to you. The earlier a defense lawyer sees the file, the more room there is to challenge the damage estimate that sets the grade of the charge.
Contact Weinstein Legal Team today at (954) 845-0505 for an entirely free case evaluation.
