CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal | 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 4181, 2011 WL 1108797
...Mark Henderson, Assistant General Counsel, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tallahassee, for Appellee. SCHWARTZ, ALAN R., Senior Judge. The Fish & Wildlife Commission revoked the commercial saltwater fishing privileges of appellant, Edgar E. Griffis, and assessed a $5,000 administrative penalty pursuant to section 379.366(4)(b), Fla....
...lue crab trap contents (count III), and one of grand theft (count IV). [1] After plea negotiations, the *931 assistant state attorney nolle prossed counts I, II, and IIIwhich if properly pursued, might have invoked the Commission's authority under section 379.366(4)(b)....
...In return for that action and a sentence of one year probation and a withhold of adjudication, appellant pled no contest to the remaining count IV, a vanilla charge which alleged a generic theft of "personal property" in the broadest terms and without specific reference to the offenses prohibited by section 379.366 or anything like them. We hold that this fact pattern does not qualify under section 379.366(4)(b), since it was patently not "a judicial disposition other than dismissal or acquittal on a charge of theft of or from a trap as prohibited by this paragraph....
...fundamental error"); Rose v. State,
507 So.2d 630, 632 (Fla. 5th DCA 1987) ("It is elementary that the conviction of a crime not charged violates constitutional due process."). Putting these principles together yields the inevitable conclusion that section
379.366(4)(b), cannot apply because the charge to which the appellant pled was not one specified in section
379.366(4)(b)....
...What is more, it is at best ironic that the action countermanded by the Commission was that of the very office, that of the State Attorney, which has the constitutional responsibility for charging and prosecuting offenses, upon which the application of section 379.366(4)(b) entirely depends....
...For these reasons, the license revocation and fine under review are reversed and the cause is remanded with instructions to dismiss the administrative complaint. PADOVANO and CLARK, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] The Amended information stated as follows: COUNT 1 MOLESTING BLUE CRAB TRAPS (F3)
379.366 COUNT 2 MOLESTING BLUE CRAB TRAPS (F3)
379.366 COUNT 3 UNLAWFUL REMOVAL OF BLUE CRAB TRAP CONTENTS (M2)
379.366 COUNT 4 GRAND THEFT ($300 OR MORE BUT LESS THAN $20,000) (F3)
812.014(2)(c) IN THE NAME AND BY AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, NORMAN R....
...EY, CHARGES THAT COUNT 1 IN THE COUNTY OF BREVARD, STATE OF FLORIDA, on March 16, 2007, EDGAR EMERY GRIFFIS, did willfully molest blue crab traps, lines or buoys belonging to another, without permission of the license holder, [] contrary to Sections
379.366 and [37]9.407, Florida Statutes, COUNT 2 IN THE COUNTY OF BREVARD, STATE OF FLORIDA, on March 16, 2007, EDGAR EMERY GRIFFIS, did willfully molest blue crab traps, lines or buoys belonging to another, without permission of the license holder, contrary to Sections
379.366 and [37]9.407, Florida Statutes, COUNT 3 IN THE COUNTY OF BREVARD, STATE OF FLORIDA, on March 16, 2007, EDGAR EMERY GRIFFIS, did remove the contents of or take possession of another harvester's blue crab trap without the express written consent of the trap owner available for immediate inspection, contrary to Sections
379.366 and
379.407, Florida Statutes, COUNT 4 IN THE COUNTY OF BREVARD, STATE OF FLORIDA, on March 16, 2007, EDGAR EMERY GRIFFIS did knowingly obtain or use, or endeavor to obtain or use property, to wit PERSONAL PROPERTY, of the value of $300 00 or...
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CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal
...1st DCA
2011) to argue that a suspension based on a plea is “unacceptable.”
His reliance on Griffis is misplaced.
In Griffis, we reversed a stone crab endorsement revocation
because we found that Griffis’s plea could not support an
administrative penalty under section 379.366(4), Florida Statutes.
Griffis, 57 So....
...IV).” Id. at 930. As part of his negotiated plea, Griffis agreed to
plead no contest to count IV for grand theft and the State agreed
to drop counts I, II, and III. Id. It was because Griffis pleaded to
the grand theft charge and not the specific section 379.366
2
violations that we found his plea to be an insufficient basis for the
Commission’s revocation. Id. at 932 (“[S]ection 379.366(4)(b)
cannot apply because the charge to which the appellant pled was
not one specified in section 379.366(4)(b).”)....
