These are among the most serious charges Florida prosecutes, and the stakes are severe. Do not speak to investigators before you speak with a lawyer. Call now.
Call 904-383-7448Florida charges certain internet offenses under section 847.0135, Florida Statutes. The statute reaches transmitting harmful material to a minor, using an online service to solicit a minor, and traveling to meet a minor after solicitation. These are serious felonies with consequences that reach well beyond a courtroom.
Because the stakes are this high, the most important step is the earliest one. Do not discuss the allegations with investigators before you have counsel. Call 904-383-7448.
Under section 847.0135, Florida criminalizes several distinct internet offenses. One is transmitting material harmful to minors by electronic means. Another is using a computer, online service, or messaging system to seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a minor, or someone believed to be a minor, into unlawful conduct. A further provision, often called traveling to meet, applies when a person is alleged to have traveled toward a meeting after such solicitation. The grade of each offense is set by statute, and the consequences on conviction can include prison and registration requirements that follow a person for years. These are facts to be taken seriously, not reasons to act in haste.
Many of these prosecutions grow out of law-enforcement operations conducted online. In a common pattern, an officer poses as a minor in a chat or app, the conversation is recorded, and a charge follows. That structure raises questions a court is entitled to examine. Who initiated and steered the conversation. Whether the words attributed to the accused were actually written by that person, given shared devices, shared accounts, and the ease of misattribution online. How the operation was set up and run. And, in any case built on a sting, whether the conduct was induced in a way the law does not permit. Entrapment is a recognized defense in Florida when the State implants a criminal design in the mind of a person not otherwise disposed to commit the offense, and whether it applies turns entirely on the facts.
Identity is a recurring issue. The State must connect a specific person to specific messages, and the digital record does not always make that connection cleanly. An account can be used by more than one person. A device can be shared. An IP address identifies a connection, not a person. These are not technicalities; they are the difference between a guess and proof.
These cases almost always involve seized phones and computers and the data pulled from them. How that data was obtained matters. Whether the warrant was valid, whether the search stayed within its scope, and whether the extraction and analysis followed reliable methods are all questions a court can be asked to decide. Evidence gathered in violation of the Fourth Amendment can be challenged and, in the right circumstances, kept out. The reliability of the forensic method, the same scrutiny applied to any machine-produced evidence, is a proper subject of cross-examination.
The window in which the most can be done is at the very beginning, before statements are made and before opportunities are lost. Graham Syfert owned a technology company before he became a lawyer and sits on the Georgia Bar's Technology Law Section, which means he can read the digital record the State relies on rather than take it on faith. If you have been contacted, arrested, or had a device seized in connection with an allegation under section 847.0135, call 904-383-7448 or email graham@syfert.com right away. The conversation is confidential.
It covers certain internet offenses, including transmitting harmful material to a minor, using an online service to solicit a minor, and traveling to meet a minor after such solicitation. See section 847.0135, Florida Statutes. These are serious felonies.
It is common for these cases to arise from operations in which the other party was law enforcement rather than an actual minor. How the operation was conducted, who steered the conversation, and whether the conduct was improperly induced are all relevant. Entrapment is a recognized defense in Florida when the facts support it.
Speak with a lawyer first. These are among the most serious charges Florida prosecutes, and early statements can be hard to undo. Declining to answer questions until you have counsel is your right and is usually the wisest step.
Related: Florida Computer Crimes Defense · Unauthorized Computer Access · Cyberstalking
The call is free and confidential. Whether it is a traffic citation or a felony, the sooner a defense begins, the more can be done. Graham W. Syfert answers his own phone.
Call 904-383-7448Graham W. Syfert, Esq., P.A. · Jacksonville, Florida
Serving Duval, Clay, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties