Your future is worth fighting for—don't let a Florida domestic violence arrest write the next chapter of your story. Contact us today for a confidential, no-pressure consultation. The Law Offices of Dave L. Simmons, P.A. proudly stands with clients throughout Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Davie, Plantation, Hillsboro Beach, Pembroke Pines, Coconut Creek, Coral Springs, Lauderhill, Deerfield Beach, and neighboring communities.
Most people assume a misdemeanor is a small problem. A domestic battery charge is the exception. In Florida, a battery carrying the domestic violence designation follows you in ways that a felony drug charge or a DUI does not—because even a withhold of adjudication leaves a record you can never seal or expunge.
This case shows why the window between arrest and the State Attorney's filing decision is the single most valuable period in a domestic violence case. Once charges are formally filed, the case takes on a momentum of its own. Before they are filed, the entire matter can still be stopped.
One argument. One phone call to police. One officer's decision about who to put in handcuffs—made in a matter of minutes, in a living room, based on whichever account came first.
That is how our client, a man with no criminal history, ended up under arrest for domestic battery. His accuser told officers he had struck her on the head and on the back during an argument. Officers designated him the primary aggressor and took him into custody.
There was a problem with that account. It did not match the physical evidence—and it did not stay consistent as she repeated it.
The Charge He Faced
Our client was arrested and charged with:
Battery (Domestic Violence) — a first-degree misdemeanor under Florida Statutes § 784.03, based on the allegation that he intentionally struck his partner during a domestic argument.
A first-degree misdemeanor conviction in Florida carries up to one year in county jail, up to one year of probation, and a $1,000 fine. But in a domestic violence case, the sentence is rarely the worst part.
A domestic violence conviction brings mandatory conditions the court has little discretion to waive: completion of a 26-week Batterers' Intervention Program at the defendant's expense, no-contact orders that can bar you from your own home, and—under federal law—the permanent loss of the right to own or possess a firearm. If the court adjudicates you guilty and finds the victim suffered bodily injury, Florida law requires a minimum term in county jail.
Then there is the record itself. This is what most people do not learn until it is too late: a battery designated as domestic violence cannot be sealed in Florida, even if adjudication is withheld. The offense is on the statutory list of crimes excluded from sealing. Complete every condition, pay every fee, stay out of trouble for the rest of your life—the record stays. It appears on background checks for employment, housing, professional licensing, immigration matters, and firearm purchases, permanently.
The only outcomes that preserve your ability to clear your record are a dismissal, a declination to file, or a reduction to an offense that carries no domestic violence designation. Everything else is permanent.
What Happened
The arrest followed a verbal argument between our client and his partner that escalated. Police were called. By the time officers arrived, they were presented with one account of what had occurred: that our client had struck her on the head and on the back.
Officers are trained to identify a primary aggressor and make an arrest when a domestic violence allegation involves physical contact. It is a policy designed to protect people in genuine danger, and it serves an important purpose. But it is applied under time pressure, at an emotional scene, and it depends heavily on which version of events the responding officer hears and credits.
Here, the account officers acted on described blows to the head and back. Yet the only physical mark documented on the alleged victim was a red mark on her arm—an injury inconsistent in both location and character with the conduct she described. Nothing on her head. Nothing on her back. Nothing corroborating the specific acts that formed the basis for the arrest.
Our client was booked into the Broward County Jail before that discrepancy was ever examined.
Our Strategic Approach
Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Dave Simmons moved on this case immediately—before the State Attorney's Office ever made a filing decision. Drawing on over 27 years of experience, including service as both a Broward County Assistant State Attorney and Assistant Public Defender, Dave knew precisely what a prosecutor reviewing a domestic battery packet looks for, and what makes that prosecutor decline to file.
The pre-file strategy included:
- Getting in front of the filing decision. In Broward County, the State Attorney's Office reviews the arrest packet and decides whether to formally file an Information—often before defense counsel has said a word. We did not wait for that decision to be made in a vacuum. We contacted the assigned prosecutor during the pre-file review period and made sure the State was evaluating the case with the full evidentiary picture in front of it, not just the arrest affidavit.
- Exposing the gap between the injuries alleged and the injuries documented. The allegation was that our client struck the alleged victim on the head and on the back. The only mark documented anywhere on her body was a red mark on her arm. We put that discrepancy squarely in front of the State: the physical evidence did not corroborate the alleged acts, and the one mark that did exist was inconsistent with the conduct described. In a case with no independent witnesses, that gap is not a detail—it is the case.
- Documenting the inconsistencies in her account. The version of events did not hold together across its retellings. We identified and organized those inconsistencies and presented them to the prosecutor as a coherent whole. A prosecutor evaluating a domestic battery case has to answer one question before filing: can I prove this beyond a reasonable doubt with this witness? We made the answer clear.
- Challenging the primary aggressor determination. The arresting officers concluded our client was the primary aggressor. That conclusion drove everything that followed. We contested it directly, showing the State that the designation rested on an uncorroborated account rather than on physical evidence or independent observation.
- Presenting the Waiver of Prosecution in the right context. The alleged victim executed a Waiver of Prosecution indicating she did not wish to pursue the case. Standing alone, that waiver would not have ended anything—Broward prosecutors routinely file domestic violence charges over a complaining witness's objection, and they are right to, because victims in genuine danger are often pressured to recant. What mattered here was the combination: a waiver alongside physical evidence that contradicted the allegations and an account that shifted in the telling. Presented together, that record supported only one conclusion.
The Result: State Declines to File — No Information Entered
After reviewing the evidence, the documented injuries, the inconsistencies in the accuser's account, and the Waiver of Prosecution, the State Attorney's Office declined to formally file charges. A No Information was entered, meaning the State concluded the case could not be proven and prosecution would not go forward.
Our client walked away with:
- No formal charges ever filed
- No conviction of any kind
- No domestic violence designation on his record
- No jail, no probation, no Batterers' Intervention Program, no no-contact order
- No loss of his firearm rights
- Eligibility to pursue expungement of the arrest record
- His job, his reputation, and his future intact
