Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge granted an Aventura developer accused of murdering his wife a $500,000 bond Thursday.

Three weeks ago, during Adam Kaufman’s initial bond hearing, Judge David Mansfield determined that the prosecution had met the presumption of guilt requirement necessary to warrant holding the 33-year-old without bond until his trial.

Mansfield said that decision weighed heavily on his mind, and after prosecutors failed to re-examine specific pieces of evidence at his request, the judge reversed course. “I do readily admit to thinking about that factor long and hard on Father’s Day,” said Mansfield, “which kind of prompted me to at least revisit the issue and see if anything that I ordered to be done was done. Once I got the motion, it seems like it wasn’t done, so that’s very disappointing.”

The judge wanted the magazine rack the defense contended Eleonora fell and choked herself on in November 2007 to be re-examined for blood evidence. Mansfield also wanted the surveillance video from the couple’s Aventura home examined to figure out when the father of two entered and exited the residence, which would determine if the defendant was in bed as his attorneys allege or was out and came home late, as prosecutors claim.

Kaufman will be released Friday, at which time he will be fitted with a monitoring device he will wear while on house arrest until his trial, which may begin in November.

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The City of Miami Police Department has released a sketch of a sex predator who attacked a woman while she was sitting in her car.

Police said the woman was inside her vehicle along Southeast 10th Street and Brickell Bay Drive in Miami when a man forced his way into her car and sexually assaulted her. One woman who lives and works nearby was shocked to hear about the attack. “It’s a tragic,” said Michelle Silva. “Anybody who lives in the Brickell area knows it’s a pretty safe area.”

The assault happened on June 6 between the hours of 3 and 4 in the morning. The victim told police she had just left the Red Bar and sat in her car trying to decide whether she should drive home or stay at a friend’s place nearby.

As she was sitting in the car, a man approached the vehicle and asked if she was all right and forced his way inside. “The victim passed out,” explained Miami Police Officer Jeffrey Giordano. “When she awakened, she realized she had been sexually assaulted.”

The suspect is described as a white man with a thin build, light eyes and brown, short air. The victim said he spoke with possibly a British or European accident.

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Florida officials say they have arrested 77 men on charges of possessing obscene materials in a cybercrime sweep.

Florida state Attorney General Bill McCollum said the arrests came as part of a 10-week crackdown on Internet child pornography dubbed “Operation Orange Tree,” targeting some of the state’s worst alleged cybercrime offenders, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

Accompanying McCollum was John Walsh, host of the television show “America’s Most Wanted” and father of a 6-year-boy who was kidnapped from a Hollywood, Fla., mall and killed in 1981, the newspaper said.

“As a Floridian, I’m proud of the work of all the agencies involved — it sets a great example for the other 49 states,” Walsh said.

McCollum said 17 of those arrested possessed a tutorial video on how to sexually molest children without being detected, while five minors were rescued from abusive situations.

Police are searching for a hit and run driver who hit a child trying to cross the street Wednesday night.

“He was unconscious on the ground,” said Janetta Burns, the boy’s mother. Police said, 9-year-old Brandon Burns was walking alone near 64th Street and Northwest Seventh Avenue when the driver hit him. The impact sent the boy close to 75 feet into the air. “You left my baby out on the street like if he was a dog, like you didn’t care,” said Burns.

Witnesses in other cars tried chasing down the suspect, but they could not catch up to the vehicle. “According to witnesses, the vehicle slowed down and then took off and was last seen traveling northbound on Northwest Seventh Avenue,” said Miami Police Sergeant Luis Taborda.

Police are now working to track down the driver. “I’m asking the offender, this is a child, turn yourself in,” said Taborda.

Paramedics rushed the boy to Jackson Memorial Hospital where he is listed in serious condition. Now, his mother is asking anyone with any information to come forward. “Whoever chased them, they might know the tag number. They need to come forward and tell us because my child is in the hospital,” said Burns. “He’s screaming, he’s crying, and he was unconscious when we came to the scene.”

Police are looking for a newer model black Nissan Maxima with dark tinted windows that has front-end damage.

Meanwhile, Burns just wants answers. “I can’t understand how they could sleep at night knowing they hit a child. They don’t know if the child is dead, and they’re just gone, like they don’t care.”

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