[Download] "State v. Rokos" by Florida Court of Appeal " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: State v. Rokos
- Author : Florida Court of Appeal
- Release Date : January 27, 2000
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 50 KB
Description
In October of 1996, the State of Florida charged George O. Rokos, and his attorney T.G. Brown, with tampering with a witness and conspiracy to tamper with a witness. The instant appeal involves the charges filed against Rokos. Rokos sought to dismiss the charges against him, contending that he was entrapped. The trial court agreed, found that Rokos was entrapped as a matter of law, and dismissed the charges. 1 The State of Florida now timely appeals that dismissal, contending that there were disputed issues of material fact concerning predisposition. On this point, we agree with the State that the trial judge erred in finding entrapment as a matter of law and in failing to submit the issue to a jury. The witness that Brown and Rokos allegedly tampered with was George Kleinbach. At the time, Kleinbach had been arrested for burglary and had agreed to cooperate with police on a number of other unresolved burglaries. During the course of conversations with police, Kleinbach alleged that Brown, who was Rokos' attorney, visited him in jail and offered him money to change his testimony with regard to Rokos, Kleinbach's alleged fence who had recently been arrested for dealing in stolen property. Kleinbach agreed to wear a wire and police taped conversations between Kleinbach and Rokos. Kleinbach's allegations and the taped conversations form the basis for the witness tampering charges. Rokos' attorney moved to dismiss the charges against his client on entrapment grounds.