Can Florida Sheriff enforce Florida law on Colorado citizens?









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kazi5 12/21/10 - 09:56 am
Wrong Violation

It seems to me the only person who has violated FL's Obscenity laws would be Sheriff Judd and his deputy. They are the ones in possession of the obscene material.

However, I see how they are justifying the case. It was a "sting operation" - equivalent to a drug bust. The seller should have known he was selling something deemed illegal. The difference is that drug busts involve dealers in the local area, not a thousand miles away.

smadrid717 12/21/10 - 11:06 am
Every now and then

Common sense has to be allowed to prevail over the letter of the law. I think that the opposite of that sentiment is more responsible than anything else (video games, rap music, Elvis, not having mandatory public prayer in schools, and the other normal scapegoats) for the moral decline of Western civilization, with the possible exception of the worst parents having the most kids. As it applies here, the concern for a pedophile's technicality rights is a symptoms of the greater problem; that being the first sentence of this post. Slippery slope, MY slippery slope.

Bert Knabe 12/21/10 - 02:07 pm

I like your point about possession. But I'm pretty sure the law in question was about selling the material. And as you said, it was a sting.

Every level of law enforcement uses stings - but at their level unless they're assisting a higher level group. The FBI enforces U.S. law inside our borders. State police enforce state laws across county lines, Sheriffs enforce state and county law inside the counties, local police enforce local laws. Each group enforces the laws of the higher levels inside their jurisdiction. Lubbock police do not enforce U.S. law Houston, let alone Denver - unless they are working with the FBI or the Denver police for some reason. They definitely don't setup stings to catch a citizen of Colorado who broke a Texas law (that doesn't exist) in Denver.

If this case is allowed to stand, it has some scary implications. The good thing is, most police are overworked with crime in their own jurisdiction. They don't have time or inclination to seek out criminals who have no connection to it.

Bert Knabe 12/21/10 - 02:25 pm
Something I didn't get into

but that the blog I reference pointed out (and linked to articles confirming) is that this sheriff has apparently taken it upon himself to be morality police. And the county apparently gets a few other things backwards. Things like a stripper who filed a complaint that she was being stalked and was charged with public indecency as a result (don't have the whole story). No word on whether they did anything about the stalker.

JAFO 12/21/10 - 04:45 pm

Are we sure the sheriff's real name isn't either Buford T. Justice or Roscoe P. Coletrane?

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