The Key West Citizen

Taking Someone To Court?
Be Sure You Know The Rules!

Not long ago, the county juvenile court staff and a group of more than a dozen people turned out to testify against a woman charged with contributing to the dependency of her children.

In a hearing in juvenile court, witnesses had testified that the woman's conduct was making the home an unfit place for the youngsters, making them "dependent children." Juvenile authorities decided to try to convict the woman on this charge in an adult court.

The juvenile staff went to the justice of the peace and swore out a warrant against the woman. The peace justice obligingly set a date for the preliminary hearing, to determine if there was enough evidence to turn the woman over to a higher court for trial. A dozen witnesses were prepared to testify against her.

But somebody overlooked one thing.

It's a point of argument in many court cases.

It's the argument that only the actions of the accused on the date that person is supposed to have committed the offense, the date listed in the warrant, should be brought before the court. The witnesses and the juvenile court staff arrived at the hearing, ready to testify against the woman involved—only to learn that most of what they had to say, since it didn't happen on the date listed in the warrant, couldn't be heard as testimony at all.

How much a mixup occurred, we don't know. As it was, there was a good deal of annoyed comment from the witnesses, who said they felt as though they'd been silly, or perhaps had been given the run-around.

They shouldn't feel that way.

We've seen the same thing happen in other courts, in other cases.

The moral reasoning behind this is simple. A man who has a past bad record may not be guilty of a certain crime—but if his past is brought up, in the trial, and allowed to stand as evidence it might prejudice the judge or the jury against him. That wouldn't be fair.

The courts of Monroe County and the State of Florida are here to serve the people and each other. They can't however, proceed when a question is in doubt. It is up to the person or the people who swear out a warrant to see that the date listed in it when they sign it, and the other facts mentioned in it, are correct. And it is up to them to prove the offense they charge was committed on that date.

This may seem like a mere technical detail, sometimes but it is 'technical details' like these that are sometimes an innocent man's only chance for an even break when he's wrongly accused.