STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
ROBIN L. ROBSON AND JAN POZIN, APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1981-05-04
No. UU-80
ERVIN and JOANOS, JJ., concur.
397 So. 2d 768 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1981)

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Synopsis

The State of Florida appealed the dismissal of grand theft indictments against Robin L. Robson and Jan Pozin. The trial court had dismissed the indictments as insufficient because they tracked statutory language without detailing specific fraudulent acts, but the Florida Supreme Court's intervening decision in State v. Dilworth reversed this position, holding that indictments tracking statutory language are sufficient when liberal discovery rules and statements of particulars are available.


Holding

The court held that indictments tracking statutory language are legally sufficient if they express the elements of the offense charged in a way that does not mislead or embarrass the defendant in preparing a defense or expose the defendant to double jeopardy, particularly given Florida's liberal discovery rules and availability of statements of particulars.


Headnotes

[1] An indictment tracking the language of Florida Statutes Section 812.014 is legally sufficient if it sets forth the elements of the offense such that the accused is not mi…

[2] The availability of liberal discovery rules and a statement of particulars in criminal cases can render an indictment sufficient even if it tracks statutory language with…

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Key Quotes

“With the advent of Florida's liberal discovery rules in criminal cases, along with the availability of a statement of particulars, a defendant is no longer forced to obtain information about the charge only from the charging document.”

Establishes the rationale for why indictments need not contain detailed factual allegations when discovery mechanisms are available

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Facts & Procedural History

Robson and Pozin were indicted for grand theft involving obtaining money valued between $100 and $20,000 belonging to Clay County Board of County Comm…

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Opinion of the Court
BOOTH, Judge.

BOOTH, Judge.

The State of Florida appeals from a Circuit Court order dismissing the indictments charging the defendants, Robin L. Robson and Jan Pozin, with grand theft. The indictments, following the language of Florida Statutes, Section 812.014, are all in substantially the same form, varying only as to date and the particulars of the charge, as follows:

[Appellees], in the County of Clay and State of Florida, did knowingly obtain or use or endeavor to obtain or use money of a value of One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) or more but less than $20,000.00, the property of CLAY COUNTY, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, pertaining to money toward the employment of ROBIN L. ROBSON, with intent to deprive the other person of a right to the property or benefit therefrom, or with intent to appropriate the property to their own use or to the use of any person not entitled thereto, contrary to the provisions of Section 812.014, Florida Statutes.

The trial judge found that dismissal was required by Dilworth v. State, 381 So. 2d 1125 (Fla. 1st DCA 1979), which held that the information charging unemployment fraud in the language of the statute1 was insufficient because it failed to set out the specific acts constituting the fraud.

Subsequent to the trial judge’s dismissal in the instant case and pending appeal in this court, the Florida Supreme Court, in State v. Dilworth, 397 So. 2d 292 (Fla.1981), quashed the decision of this court in Dilworth and held that the indictment tracking the statutory language was sufficient. The Supreme Court in Dilworth, supra, holds:

With the advent of Florida’s liberal discovery rules in criminal cases, along with the availability of a statement of particulars, a defendant is no longer forced to obtain information about the charge only from the charging document. ... [A]n information is legally sufficient if it expresses the elements of the offense charged in such a way that the accused is neither misled or embarrassed in the preparation of his defense nor exposed to double jeopardy.

The present indictments satisfy the foregoing requirements.

Accordingly, this case is reversed and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

ERVIN and JOANOS, JJ., concur. . Information in Dilworth, supra, charged violation of § 443.22(1), Florida Statutes (1975), in 15 counts virtually identical except for dates, as follows:

[The defendant] on the 17th day of April, 1976, in the County of Gadsden and State of Florida, did then and there knowingly make a false statement or representation, or knowingly fail to disclose a material fact, to obtain or increase unemployment benefits for himself from the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation, to which he was not lawfully entitled at such time, contrary to Section 443.-22(1), Florida Statutes.

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