ROBERTO LORENZO, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 4th DCA | 1986-02-12
No. 85-1878
DOWNEY and LETTS, JJ., concur.
483 So. 2d 790 Florida District Court of Appeal, Fourth District (1986) Positive Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.

Synopsis

Roberto Lorenzo appealed his probation revocation sentence, challenging the trial court's departure from sentencing guidelines. The appellate court held that while a defendant's need for MDSO treatment can justify departure when the guidelines sentence does not include state prison, the trial court's stated reasons here were invalid, and the case was remanded for resentencing.


Holding

The court held that while judicial determination of MDSO status can justify departure from guidelines when the recommended sentence is non-prison, it does not justify departure when the guidelines already recommend state prison incarceration. The court also held that violation of probation and general public protection are impermissible or insufficient reasons for departure. The sentence was reversed and remanded for resentencing.


Headnotes

[1] A trial court may depart from recommended sentencing guidelines for a mentally disordered sex offender if the recommended sentence is a non-state prison sanction.

[2] A judicial determination that a convicted sex offender requires treatment in a Mentally Disordered Sex Offender program is a sufficient reason to depart from sentencing g…

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Key Quotes

“A trial court may depart from the recommended guidelines sentence on the basis of a defendant's need for treatment under the Mentally Disordered Sex Offender (MDSO) program where the recommended sentence is any non-state prison sanction.”

Establishes the legal standard for when MDSO status can justify departure from guidelines

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

On June 17, 1983, Lorenzo pleaded nolo contendere to indecent assault upon a male child and was placed on probation for two years. On June 10, 1985, t…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
DELL, Judge.

DELL, Judge.

On June 17, 1983, appellant pled nolo contendere to a charge of indecent assault upon a male child. The court placed him on probation for a period of two years. On June 10, 1985, the State filed an affidavit charging him with violation of his probation “in that ... he did then and there unlawfully expose or exhibit his sexual organs or go naked in a public place....” The trial court found that appellant had violated the terms of his probation and entered an order of revocation. The guidelines scoresheet yielded a recommended guidelines sentence of community control or twelve to thirty months incarceration. The trial court increased appellant’s guidelines sentence by one cell for violation of probation and then departed from the two and one-half to three and one-half year period of incarceration as provided by the next higher cell and sentenced appellant to ten years in prison. The trial court based its departure on the following reasons:

1. It is obvious that the defendant is a mentally disoriented sex offender and such aggravation of sentence is necessary to place the defendant in a program for mentally disoriented sex offenders.

2. The defendant is in violation of his probation for the charge of Indecent Assault, on a male child under 14 by com mitting a substantive violation of law while on probation to wit: Lewd Act in the presence of several minor children.

3. Protection of society necessitates this upward deviation of the guidelines sentence from 3V2 years to 10 years incarceration in the Florida State Prison System.

Appellant contends that the reasons advanced by the trial court do not constitute clear and convincing reasons to depart from the guidelines and are otherwise invalid. We agree.

A trial court may depart from the recommended guidelines sentence on the basis of a defendant’s need for treatment under the Mentally Disordered Sex Offender (MDSO) program where the recommended sentence is any non-state prison sanction. Dodd v. State, 471 So. 2d 668 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985).

Under the MDSO statute the only way a convict can get the MDSO treatment is if he is in the state prison. § 917.012, Fla. Stat. (1983). So, the question on appeal is whether a judicial determination that a convicted sex offender is a mentally disordered sex offender is a sufficient reason to depart from the sentencing guidelines. We answer the question in the affirmative and thus affirm the sentence .... [W]e base our ruling upon the simple logic that if a convict is judicially determined to be in need of MDSO treatment and because the only way a judge’s recommendation for that treatment can be followed by the state is while the convict is in prison then the guidelines statute must yield to the MDSO statute in order for the state to follow the recommendation.

Id. at 668; see also Dorman v. State, 457 So. 2d 503 (Fla. 1st DCA 1984).

Here, however, the applicable guidelines sentence provided for two and one-half to three and one-half years incarceration. Therefore, the first reason advanced by the trial court does not constitute a clear and convincing reason for departure since the trial court did not need to aggravate appellant’s sentence in order to make him eligible for the MDSO program.

The trial court’s second reason for departure from the guidelines relates only to appellant’s violation of probation and as such would constitute an impermissible reason for departure. See Monti v. State, 480 So. 2d 223 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985) and Boldes v. State, 475 So. 2d 1356 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985).

Finally, the State concedes that the third reason as stated by the trial court— the protection of society — is too vague standing alone to support a departure from the guidelines.

Therefore we reverse the trial court’s sentence and remand this cause for resentencing.

REVERSED and REMANDED.

DOWNEY and LETTS, JJ., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Middleton v. State, 489 So. 2d 201 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986)
    …to be complete, categorization of cases involving the need for protection of society as a stated basis for departure from the guidelines can be set forth: (1) Need for Protection of Society Alone, Without Explanation, Not Enough Lorenzo v. State, 483 So. 2d 790 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985). Martinez-Diaz v. State, 484 So. 2d 633 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986). Wilson v. State, 490 So. 2d 1360 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986). (2) Need for Protection of Society Based Upon Pattern of Conduct Shown by Defendant’s Prior Record As Explained…
  • Fabelo v. State, 488 So. 2d 915 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986)
    …ture based on a need to “protect the community from Carlos Fabelo,” this is clearly invalid and unsupported by the record. See Scott v. State, 484 So. 2d 100 (Fla. 1st DCA 1986); Fowler v. State, 482 So. 2d 602 (Fla. 5th DCA 1986); Lorenzo v. State, 483 So. 2d 790 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986). Finally, the factors surrounding the new charges of delivery and possession of cannabis are invalid grounds for departure as they relate to offenses for which no convictions were obtained. Fowler v. State, Nunez v. State, 482 S…
  • Reid v. State, 488 So. 2d 913 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986)
    …and no unusual facts in this regard were set forth by the trial judge. See Tompkins v. State, 483 So. 2d 115 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986). As to reason 5, danger to society, that reason, standing alone, is an invalid basis for departure. See Lorenzo v. State, 483 So. 2d 790 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986); Martinez-Diaz v. State, 484 So. 2d 633 (Fla. 2d DCA 1986). As to reason 6, the breaking into victim’s home, that portion of the reason dependent upon the unlawful entry into the victim’s home was an element of one of the offense…

Previewing 3 of 6 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw