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Man wrongly convicted and released after 12 years

One month after a judge ordered a new trial and cast doubt on the evidence against him for murder, Andre Gonzalez is a free man. Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped the case against Gonzalez, who spent 12 years behind bars for a murder outside a North Miami-Dade nightclub, a killing his defense lawyers said he did not commit. Gonzalez, who was also known in court records by the alias Tony Brown, […]

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Phil Honored With The “Against All Odds Award”

On April 26, 2014, the Miami Chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys honored Phil with their “Rodney Thaxton Against All Odds Award“. In 2011 Phil undertook the defense of Dennis Escobar in a re-trial of a murder case. Dennis Escobar had been sentenced to death in 1992, but the Florida Supreme Court reversed his conviction. The re-trial began in early 2013 and lasted over two months. The

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The Wins Carry You Through

Some of my work involves representing indigent defendants for the Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel for the 3rd Region of Florida. I am privileged and honored to have this position for this remarkable agency run by Gene Zenobi, a great lawyer and a great man. Many people charged with a very serious crime do not have the funds necessary to hire a private defense attorney. My work

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A true story by “Forfeiture Phil.” 

Being arrested is a traumatic event. The government is more and more using another weapon in their arsenal when charging someone with a crime: seizing their assets. This can turn an arrest into a possible financial disaster.  State and Federal law enforcement officers are now routinely seizing cars, cash, freezing bank accounts, and in some cases, moving to forfeit  a person’s house or other property.  When the police seize assets,

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Change Is The Price Of Survival

Gary Player is a world champion golfer. At the age of 29, he became the third golfer in the world to win all four major titles. He did it before Tiger Woods was born and he did it before Jack Nicklaus, the golfer who still holds the record for most major title wins (18), won all four major titles.  Gary Player was lifting weights and exercising and studying nutrition in

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What I Do and Why I Do It.

I started my career as a lawyer as a prosecutor in the Dade County State Attorney’s Office on August 11, 1986. The day was so significant in my life that I remember it thirty-two years later. Janet Reno, who later went on to be the Attorney General of the United States, was the State Attorney in Miami. She was my boss.   Miami was a thrilling place to be a

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