Olivo, a lawyer with Fort Myers-based Wilbur Smith Attorneys at Law, said he’ll likely file a motion to find out when the state attorney’s office became aware of allegations of deep-seated issues within the police department that came out in a scathing audit released in February.
“Now it’s calling into question all of those cases where the verdict wasn’t unanimous as for death penalties, and all of those cases where judges strayed from what the jury thought and imposed their own sentence,” Garza said.
“When there’s a death involved, the penalty for that is a maximum license suspension and a fine,” said Sawyer Smith, an attorney for the Wilbur Smith Law Firm in Fort Myers.
“Some people who have taken that third option are experiencing some problems, just because we do not know when the EPA is going to approve the fix,” said Sawyer Smith, a Fort Myers attorney whose firm represented plaintiffs in the class action suit.
Hamilton’s lawyer, Sawyer Charles Smith of Wilbur Smith Attorneys at Law, plans to argue that officers should not have searched Hamilton’s home nor her daughter’s diaper.
Sawyer said the onus for change should be a joint effort.
“Change needs to come to this community and it needs to come to FMPD,” he said. “This is an explosion waiting to happen and law enforcement is not helping a thing.”
Ryan Doyle, an attorney for Allen, tells WINK News the council just hid behind threats of possible lawsuits.
“What we saw tonight was the city leaders failed to act as leaders. They had an opportunity to address the situation and they failed to do so. The citizens and Nate Allen are let down by their actions tonight,” said Doyle.
The Wilbur Smith Law Firm spoke to the council on Allen’s behalf.
Wilbur Smith himself, told the council there were many glaring errors in the investigation.
Before the meeting, Allen’s lawyer Sawyer Smith showed us a tow record for Allen’s truck.
It shows the reason for the tow was an arrest even though police say they never arrested him. Smith says that’s further proof, his client’s civil rights were violated.
Allen’s attorney, says Baker’s internal investigation is not enough, and wants the state or even the FBI to look into the case. Smith wrote a letter to the City Council asking them to intervene.
“When you do it yourself, an internal, you are asking lower level officers to evaluate everybody lower, the same rank and above. That’s hard to do,” said Smith
2200 Broadway
Fort Myers, Florida
33901
P.O. Box 8
Fort Myers, Florida
33902