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Originally Posted by hogdogs
Frank, while I respect your education and background... here in Fla... If The defender claims self defense and there IS NOT obvious evidence to the contrary on the scene, the defender cannot be arrested, held or otherwise harassed... That is what our SYG law does... if the report is investigated (and it will be) and no obvious "coverup" of a crime on the part of the defender is noted, then charges cannot be pressed even then.....
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Nope, you misunderstand Florida law. We had a lengthy discussion of Florida law
here.
And the immunity statute (
776.032) specifically provides at paragraph (2):
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...(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard procedures for investigating the use of force as described in subsection (1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful....
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Probable cause is the general standard for arrest. So at whatever point in the investigation of a use of force in claimed self defense the police find probable cause to conclude that the use of force was not justified, you can be arrested and prosecuted.
And there seems to be a good basis to conclude that to satisfy the probable cause standard in Florida (
City of St. Petersburg v. Austrino, 898 So.2d 955 (Fla. App., 2005)):
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...The facts and circumstances, based upon reasonably trustworthy information, must be such that "would cause a prudent person to believe" the suspect has committed a crime....
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That's a whole lot different from:
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Originally Posted by hogdogs
...no obvious "coverup" of a crime on the part of the defender...
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