ANNE MARIE RILA, 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.
Anne Marie Rila, a lawful permanent resident, appeals the summary denial of her rule 3.850 motion to withdraw her guilty plea, alleging the plea was involuntary based on misadvice from a person falsely posing as an immigration attorney. The Fourth District reversed and remanded, holding that generic deportation warnings do not conclusively refute claims of specific misadvice about immigration consequences.
A plea may be involuntary based on affirmative misadvice about deportation consequences, and generic warnings about the possibility of deportation do not conclusively refute a claim that a defendant would not have entered the plea absent specific misadvice from a purported immigration attorney. The rule 3.850 motion was facially sufficient and not refuted by the record.
[1] A criminal plea may be involuntary if based upon affirmative misadvice regarding deportation consequences.
[2] Generic warnings about the possibility of deportation during a plea colloquy do not conclusively refute a defendant's claim of involuntary plea based on specific misadvic…
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“A plea may be involuntary based upon affirmative misadvice about deportation consequences.”
Establishes the legal standard allowing withdrawal based on immigration advice, citing Ghanavati v. State.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceRila, a Romanian citizen and lawful permanent resident, was charged with criminal offenses and entered a negotiated plea to two counts of third degree…
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 Affirmative Misadvice cases and more on FLexlaw
Anne Marie Rila appeals the summary denial of a rule 3.850 motion that alleged her plea was involuntary based upon mis-advice from a person posing as an immigration attorney. Because her motion states a facially sufficient claim that is not refuted by the record, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.
According to her rule 3.850 motion, Rila, a Romanian citizen, was a lawful permanent resident of the United States when she was charged with committing criminal offenses. In 2013, she entered a negotiated plea to two counts of third degree grand theft and one count of uttering a forged instrument in exchange for nine months of probation with adjudication withheld. Before entering her plea, Rila and defense counsel consulted Mathew Cruz, who pretended to be an immigration attorney. Cruz advised them that as long as the term of probation was less than one year, a plea to these charges would not result in deportation.
*449During the plea hearing, the trial court provided a general warning that the plea could subject her to deportation and that the court could not make any promises about whether she would be deported. Defense counsel advised the court that he had been in touch with her immigration attorney the entire time and that they were aware of the deportation consequences.
. Rila later learned that Cruz was not an attorney and his advice was wrong. In 2014, she moved, to withdraw her plea as involuntary. Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.850(a)(5). Her motion alleged that her plea subjects her to virtually automatic deportation because uttering a forged instrument is considered a crime of moral turpitude and the offense was committed within five years of admission, making her removable under 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(A)®. She alleged that if she was correctly advised she would not have entered the plea and would havé proceeded to trial.
In support of her motion, Rila filed an affidavit from defense counsel stating: (1) he had no reason to question Cruz’s representation that he was an immigration lawyer; (2) Cruz advised them Rila would not be deportable under the terms of the plea agreement; and (3) defense counsel believed that Rila would not have entered the plea otherwise. Rila also provided evidence that Cruz was previously referred to the Florida Bar for the unauthorized practice of law.
The trial court summarily denied the rule 3.850 motion, agreeing with the state that Rila’s claim was refuted by the deportation warnings in the plea colloquy and written plea form.
A plea may be involuntary based upon affirmative misadvice about deportation consequences. Ghanavati v. State, 820 So.2d 989, 991 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002). The generic warnings Rila received about the possibility of deportation do not conclusively refute her claim that-she would not have entered the plea absent the. specific misad-vice that she received from a non-lawyer posing as an immigration attorney. See O’Neill v. State, 107 So.3d 1133 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012).
Rila’s rule 3.850 motion is facially sufficient and the record does not conclusively refute her allegations. As a result, we reverse the trial court’s summary denial-and remand for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded.
Damoorgian, Conner and Klingensmith, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Assadollah Ghanavati v. State, 820 So. 2d 989 (Fla. 4th DCA 2002)
- Kieran F. O'Neill v. State, 107 So. 3d 1133 (Fla. 2d DCA 2012)