Do not worry! They have not joined all three cases together but, rather, what has been done is the consolidation of the cases before the same judge so that they all go to court on the same date . This is done for convenience purposes; Instead of your fiance going to court constantly, the Clerk of Court has grouped the three cases together yet each case is very much a separate matter where they will all be dealt with independent from each other. If your fiance wants to negotiate a plea bargain, then the grouping of the cases will have an advantageous affect since, under Florida's sentencing guidelines, cases that are grouped together for a plea qualify for a concurrent sentence as opposed to if they were handled separately, the exposure would be consecutive time. Each case must be analyzed and investigated separate. For instance, on the "grand theft" case, if all the prosecution has is a fingerprint. withe no other corroborative evidence, then under the circumstantial evidence laws, your fiance may have some very strong legal defenses. For the controlled substance within a 1000 feet case, the essential elements of proving an actual "sale" or "intent to sell" are not easy to prove for the prosecution making "simple possession" a much less serious crime. . I do not charge any money to do an initial consultation and conduct a preliminary analysis of all the cases so you would everything to gain and nothing to lose by inquiring with my office.

They are likely scheduling the cases together in the pre-trial stage because they are all before the same judge. Why go to court three times on three cases - just address issues while you are there. If there is to be a trial on more than one charge, then the trial should be separate as the incidents seem unrelated. As for the new charge, the first part of any charge is to be arraigned - and that is what is likely to occur on 01/29, giving plenty of time to hire an attorney. However, it is best to hire an attorney on all outstanding charges. Good luck.

They are not putting all 3 cases together; rather all 3 cases are printing out at the same time for the convenience of the court. This way the Court can determine which if the 3 will be tried 1st (they cannot try them together), if any, and wthether or not a global resolution (i.e. a way to resolve all 3 w/o a trial) is possible. If you are looking to retain counsel then you should consider that no one case is more important than the other (yes, I know that one carries more time than the rest)(, but if he is dead on the facts and law on the "less severe cases" then he's going down, and with the combo of cases and charges I suspect that if that happens he will go down fast and hard. Still, your fiance may or may not enjoy viable defenses to the charges, affirmative or otherwise, or there may be factual, legal, procedural or substantive mechanisms by which to attack and beat the charges in his unique case, I do not know and the forum to find out is NOT on line; rather it is in the sanctity of attorney's offices, where statements are privileged and cannot be used against anyone. My advise: GET OFFLINE (caps intentional) and into a skilled and experienced local criminal defense lawyer's office. Make an appointment, show up on time, bring whatever evidence, documents or witnesses that you may have, engage in a meaningful face-to-face consultation and get yourself some advise which is legally sound and has been custom tailored as possible to meet your specific reasonable needs in your unique case. I hope that I have been helpful in answering your question.

They certainly may be lumping all three cases together for purposes of pre trial hearings and plea offers since his scoresheet should reflect all three charges if he were to accept a plea on all three. The trials, however, should be scheduled separately. Hire an attorney.

Trying the cases all together is not acceptable. He is entitled to a separate jury for each trial, and that is what will happen. More time will be given when you hire an attorney, because the attorney you hire will need a continuance to do the necessary discover.