OUR DISMISSALS

STATE V. R.S. (ARMED ROBBERY)

The Defendant was charged with Armed Robbery. He was accused of robbing a waitress behind a local PF Chang's restaurant at gunpoint and taking her money. He was identified by the victim as the person who robbed her after the police did a "dog track" back to his house where he was found sleeping on the couch.

The Defendant was a middle aged professional business man who was well-respected in the Boca Raton community. There was no way that a plea bargain would take place in this case as our client was at home sleeping when this robbery occurred.

Mr. O'Toole attacked the victim's identification of the client as tainted and won a motion to suppress on that issue. Moreover, Mr. O'Toole obtained medical and training records of the K-9 dog who tracked the scent of the robber to our client's house. The records showed that the K-9 had inhaled smoke from a fire just two hours prior to this incident and was having problems.

This information was never shared by the police or prosecutor. After discovering this information, Mr. O'Toole made a motion to exclude the K-9 track and won that motion.
Without a K-9 track and victim identification, the prosecutor had no evidence to present and had to DISMISS THE CASE.

Mr. O'Toole then sued the Boca Raton Police Department on behalf of our client for false arrest and for damages.  Our client was discharged from his job he held at a large financial company after 25 years of service as a result of the false charges in this case.  That case was resolved with a six-figure settlement which cannot be disclosed.  The best part of the settlement was that the lead investigator wrote a letter of apology to our client!