STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
DANIEL JOHN LEVITAN, APPELLEE; DANIEL JOHN LEVITAN, APPELLANT, V. STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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.
Florida appealed a trial court's order granting a judgment of acquittal on ten grand theft counts on double jeopardy grounds, while Levitan appealed his conviction for aggravated white collar crime. The appellate court affirmed the aggravated white collar crime conviction but reversed the acquittal on the grand theft counts, holding that Florida law permits separate convictions for both aggravated white collar crime and its predicate grand theft offenses without violating double jeopardy.
Levitan could be convicted of both aggravated white collar crime and the predicate grand theft offenses without violating double jeopardy. The trial court erred in granting a judgment of acquittal on the grand theft counts, as section 775.0844 clearly reflects legislative intent to authorize separate punishments for the aggravated white collar crime and its predicate offenses.
[1] A defendant may be convicted of both aggravated white collar crime and its predicate offenses without violating double jeopardy when the legislature clearly intends separ…
[2] The Florida statute defining aggravated white collar crime reflects a legislative intent to allow for separate prosecution and punishment of predicate offenses.
Previewing 2 of 5 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“the language and structure of section 775.0844 reflect a clear statement of legislative intent to authorize separate punishments”
Establishes that the white collar crime statute was designed to allow prosecution of both the major aggravated white collar crime offense and its predicate offenses separately
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLevitan operated Finnegan's Wake Irish Pub in Pensacola beginning November 2007. He failed to remit sales taxes collected by the business for ten mont…
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Predicate Offenses cases and more on FLexlaw
In these consolidated appeals, the State seeks review of an order granting Daniel John Levitan a judgment of acquittal (JOA) on ten counts of grand theft on double jeopardy grounds, and Levitan seeks review of his conviction for aggravated white collar crime. We find no merit in the issues raised by Levitan and affirm his *1066judgment and sentence for aggravated white collar crime without further comment. We do, however, find merit in the State’s argument that the trial court erred in granting a JOA on the grand theft counts and, for the reasons that follow, we reverse and remand for entry of judgment and sentence on those counts.
Levitan opened Finnegan’s Wake Irish Pub and Eatery in Pensacola in November 2007. Levitan’s wife and two others were listed as the owners of the business, but the evidence presented at trial established that Levitan was responsible for all of the day-to-day operations of the business, including the collection and remission of sales tax to the Florida Department of Revenue (DOR). The evidence further established that Levitan failed to remit all of the sales tax collected by the business for the months of December 2007, January 2008, February 2008, March 2008, April 2008, June 2008, July 2008, August 2008, September 2008 and October 2008, and instead he used those funds to pay operational expenses of the business. The sales tax not remitted for these months totaled more than $88,000.
In August 2009, after DOR’s civil collection efforts proved unsuccessful, the State charged Levitan with ten counts of grand theft, one count for each month that he failed to remit the sales tax collected by the business. The information was subsequently amended to include one count of aggravated white collar crime under section 775.0844, Florida Statutes (2007),1 with the grand thefts serving as the predicate offenses for this charge. After a three-day trial at which Levitan represented himself, the jury found Levitan guilty of all eleven counts.
At the sentencing hearing, Levitan, through counsel, made an ore tenus motion for a JOA on the grand theft counts on double jeopardy grounds.2 Levitan argued *1067that the offense of aggravated white collar crime contained the elements of the predicate offenses and, because the grand thefts formed the basis of the charge for the aggravated white collar crime count, he was twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense. The trial court agreed and granted a JOA on the grand theft counts, finding that the ten counts of grand theft were “lesser offenses of’ and “subsumed within” the offense of aggravated white collar crime. The trial court adjudicated Levitan guilty of aggravated white collar crime and sentenced him to 10 years in prison followed by 20 years of probation consecutive to a sentence imposed in another case.3
On appeal, the State argues that the trial court erred in granting a JOA on the grand theft counts on double jeopardy grounds because aggravated white collar crime is a distinct offense that the legislature clearly intended to punish separately from its predicate offenses. We review this issue de novo. See McKinney v. State, 66 So.3d 852, 853 (Fla.2011) (“A double jeopardy claim based upon undisputed facts presents a pure question of law and is reviewed de novo.”) (quoting Pizzo v. State, 945 So.2d 1203, 1206 (Fla.2006)).
The issue framed by the State’s appeal was squarely addressed by our sister court in Headley v. State, 90 So.3d 912 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012).4 In that case, the court held that a defendant could be convicted of both aggravated white collar crime and the predicate offenses without violating double jeopardy because the language and structure of section 775.0844 reflect a clear statement of legislative intent to authorize separate punishments. Id. at 913. The court explained:
[Section 775.0844] and the Florida RICO Act are similarly constructed, and both were enacted to allow for prosecution of the major offense as well as the predicate offenses. Both statutes establish an offense in which it is implicit that the defendant has committed a number of predicate offenses. Compare § 775.0844(3)-(4), with § 895.02. It has been previously held by Florida courts that being convicted of RICO as well as the necessarily lesser included offenses does not violate double jeopardy. See, e.g., Gross v. State, 728 So.2d 1206, 1208 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999); Haggerty v. State, 531 So.2d 364, 365 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988). The legislative intent in adopting the white collar crime statute was to “enhance sanctions imputed for nonviolent frauds and swindles, protect the public’s property, and assist in prosecuting white collar criminals.” § 775.0844(2). As with RICO, the white collar crime statute was geared toward prosecuting those individuals who engage in a pattern of committing felony offenses involving fraud and deceit. See § 775.0844(4) (defining “aggravated white collar crime”); see also Carroll v. State, 459 So.2d 368, 370 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984) (recognizing that by establishing RICO, the legislature intended to punish those who engage in a pattern of criminal activity more severely than those who only commit the predicate offenses).
Additionally, analyzing the white collar crime statute’s language and structure, as in Garrett, Headley’s double jeopardy rights were not violated as a result of being convicted of aggravated white collar crime and the predicate offenses. Garrett [v. United States], 471 U.S. 773, *1068105 S.Ct. 2407, 85 L.Ed.2d 764 [(1985) ] (recognizing that the legislature intended CCE to be a separate offense and to permit prosecution for predicate offenses as well as CCE, and concluding that convictions for both does not violate double jeopardy). As with CCE, the legislative intent in establishing section 775.0844 was to create a separate and distinct offense, see State v. Traylor, 77 So.3d 224, 226 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011) (recognizing that charging a defendant with aggravated white collar crime is a “distinct” new count, separate from any predicate offenses previously charged); there is no reference in the statute to a multiplier of a penalty for some other offense; the punishment set forth in the statute does not reference its predicate offenses; and the definition of aggravated white collar crime is not drafted in the way that a recidivist provision would be drafted. See Garrett, 471 U.S. at 778, 781-82, 105 S.Ct. 2407, 85 L.Ed.2d 764.
We agree with this reasoning and, consistent with Headley, hold that Levitan could be convicted of both aggravated white collar crime and the predicate grand theft offenses without violating double jeopardy. Accordingly, we reverse the order granting a JOA on the ten grand theft counts and remand for the trial court to enter judgment and sentence on those counts. Levitan’s judgment and sentence is otherwise affirmed.
AFFIRMED in part; REVERSED in part; REMANDED with directions.
ROWE and MAKAR, JJ., Concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Levitan v. State, 159 So. 3d 875 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015)…sonment. The State and Levi-tan each appealed. Concluding that the trial court erred in granting a judgment of acquittal on the counts of grand theft, this court ordered judgments of conviction be entered on those counts on remand. State v. Levitan, 115 So. 3d 1065 (Fla. 1st DCA 2013). In view of the new convictions, resentencing was ordered. After rehearing was denied by this court, Levitan unsuccessfully sought review in the Florida Supreme Court, which eventually denied relief on May 7, 2014. Levitan v. Sta…
Authorities Cited
- Garrett v. United States, 471 U.S. 773 (U.S. 1985)
- Pizzo v. State, 945 So. 2d 1203 (Fla. 2006)
- McKINNEY v. State, 66 So. 3d 852 (Fla. 2011)
- Carroll v. State, 459 So. 2d 368 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)
- Gross v. State, 728 So. 2d 1206 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)
- Capurso v. Dibling, 531 So. 2d 364 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988)
- Haggerty v. State, 531 So. 2d 364 (Fla. 1st DCA 1988)
- State v. Traylor, 77 So. 3d 224 (Fla. 5th DCA 2011)
- Headley v. State, 90 So. 3d 912 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012)
- Levitan v. State, 100 So. 3d 776 (Fla. 1st DCA 2012)