On Friday, December 20, 2024 the Violation of Probation charge against Jonathan “Jay” Kirschner’s client was dismissed at the conclusion of a vigorously contested trial in St. Lucie County, Florida.
The State subpoenaed to the trial both a probation officer and a “counselor” from the Orlando area tasked with evaluating and ‘treating’ the client [hereinafter, “K.C.”].
The client was placed on probation for four (4) years for a claimed criminal violation occurring in St. Lucie County.
For the uninitiated, “probation” is a non-incarnative alternative to jail or prison. Although not ‘locked-up,’ the probationer must meet certain conditions in order to remain at liberty during the length of time on probation.
Those “conditions” can be trivial or onerous, depending upon what the Trial Court orders.
Note: The conditions themselves may be minor or alternatively, can place restrictive jail-like requirements on the probationer. In this case, one of the conditions imposed by the Court required K.C. to undergo ‘counseling.’
The counseling treatment provider however, was selected by Florida’s Department of Corrections, [which, btw is suspected to have a contractual arrangement with the counseling company resulting in substantial monetary awards to the company]. Although the precise amount is unknown, attorney Jay Kirschner suspects hundreds of thousands of dollars are ‘grooved’ to the proprietary company per ‘agreement’ with the State of Florida. [Not surprising given the State at issue of course, is Florida].
But we digress.
Both the counselor and the probation officer, whose bias against the defendant was obvious even to the Trial Judge, apparently were angered when the client discovered he was not required to be counseled by “DOC’s Choice,” but rather could choose any properly credentialed counselor he chose.
Because of their bias, the sworn testimony given by the two (2) witnesses fell apart under withering cross-examination by Kirschner—-to the point that when the Judge issued his Order dismissing the warrant entirely, he advised Kirschner’s client to find a way to be supervised by some other probation officer in the Orlando office, “given the officer’s testimony” at the hearing. [The testimony was patently incredulous and not believable].
But for Kirschner’s aggressive, relenting cross examination, K.C. could have been found to be in violation of his probationary terms, which ultimately could have led to him being incarcerated to the fullest extent of the law.
Nice try, Florida. Nice try, Department of Corrections. It may be better you go pick on someone else, than attempt to violate K.C. and send him away!
Facing a Violation of Probation Charge?
If YOU are the victim of an unfair claim of violating your probation, Call Jay Kirschner at the Fort Pierce criminal law firm of Kirschner & McEnery, LLC @ 772.489.8501. Jay’s an experienced Board Certified Criminal Trial Specialist based in the Treasure Coast, who frequently represents clients throughout the State of Florida.
