Miami Federal Criminal Defense Attorney

If You Received a Target Letter

Treat the letter as a deadline, not as an invitation to explain yourself. Do these things before you respond to the prosecutor or the agent.

• Do not call the agent, the prosecutor, or a colleague to "clear it up." Anything you say can be used in the investigation.
• Do not delete, wipe, or "tidy" emails, texts, accounting files, or devices. Destroying records can become its own federal offense.
• Read every date on the letter or subpoena and calendar it. Missing a production date is not the same thing as exercising a privilege.
• If the company offers you its lawyer, ask whose interests that lawyer represents before you describe what happened.
• If you are outside the United States, do not book a flight into the district until counsel has a plan for how you will appear.
• Keep the envelope, the letter, and any subpoena together, and call so we can read them before the date on the paperwork.

Call the office or use the contact form. If you are already in custody on a federal arrest, a family member can call with your full name, date of birth, and the facility so we can find the duty-magistrate calendar.

How a Federal Investigation Differs from a State Case

A Miami-Dade state case usually starts with an arrest by local police, a first appearance within about 24 hours at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, and a filing decision by the State Attorney. Most felonies then proceed by information. Discovery in state court is governed by Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.220, which is broader, and earlier, than federal criminal discovery.

A federal investigation in this district is built by a federal agency and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. It often runs for months through search warrants, recorded calls, cooperators, and a grand jury before anyone is arrested. Grand jury proceedings are secret as to the government and the grand jurors. You may not know you are under investigation until agents are at your door, a subpoena arrives, or a target letter does.

The charging document, the court, the detention rules, and the sentence are all federal. A Florida bond schedule does not apply. Florida sealing and expungement do not clear a federal conviction. If both a state case and a federal investigation exist, they are separate matters, and talking to one set of investigators does not resolve the other.

What a Target Letter, Subpoena, and Indictment Each Mean

Target letter

Under Department of Justice policy, a target is a person the prosecutor or the grand jury has substantial evidence linking to a crime and whom the prosecutor considers a putative defendant. An officer of a company under investigation is not automatically a target just because the company is. A subject is someone whose conduct is within the scope of the investigation but who has not been labeled a putative defendant. A witness is someone called for information who is neither. The letter, or the advice of rights attached to a subpoena, is what tells you which category the prosecutor is using. People are sometimes invited in as "witnesses" when the government already treats them as subjects.

Grand jury subpoena

A subpoena ad testificandum compels testimony. A subpoena duces tecum compels documents. Department of Justice policy is to advise a target or subject of the right to refuse an answer that would incriminate them, that what they say may be used against them, and that retained counsel may be consulted outside the grand jury room. Counsel does not sit inside the room. You can discuss the subpoena with your own lawyer. Do not assume you should forward it through the company. If the paperwork itself orders you not to disclose it, follow that order and show it only to counsel. Ignoring the return date can lead to a court order compelling compliance, and then to contempt.

Indictment

An indictment is the formal felony charge, returned by the grand jury. A misdemeanor, or a felony if you waive indictment, can be charged by information instead. After an indictment you are arrested or summoned, brought before a magistrate judge, and later arraigned before a plea is entered. The indictment, not the agent's summary, is the document that controls the counts, the forum, and the statutory maximum.

Detention and Release Under the Bail Reform Act

Federal release is governed by the Bail Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3142, not by a Miami-Dade bond schedule. Unless a statutory presumption of detention applies, the magistrate judge orders release on personal recognizance or an unsecured appearance bond when that will reasonably assure your appearance and the safety of the community. If it will not, the judge imposes the least restrictive further conditions that will. A financial condition may not be set at an amount that results in detention.

The government can ask for detention in defined categories of cases, including many drug offenses, many firearms offenses, and cases involving a serious risk of flight or obstruction. Some of those charges carry a rebuttable presumption that no conditions will suffice, including certain drug offenses with a maximum of ten years or more and certain gun offenses. The presumption can be answered with evidence of ties, health, and a release plan. It is not a conviction, and it is not automatic detention. The judge weighs the charge, the weight of the evidence, your history, and danger to the community.

If the government seeks detention, the hearing is often continued a few days so both sides can prepare. By statute, a continuance at the government's request is limited to three days, and a continuance at your request to five, not counting weekends and holidays. The court can allow more time for good cause, or if you agree. You remain in custody during that continuance. A pretrial services officer, who works for the court rather than the prosecutor, often interviews you about residence, work, and family before the magistrate sees you. Do not discuss the facts of the investigation in that interview.

Conditions in this district commonly include reporting to U.S. Pretrial Services, drug testing, a curfew or location monitoring, surrender of a passport, and travel limited to the Southern District of Florida. There is no commercial bail-bondsman system of the kind people expect from county court. If a cash deposit or a corporate surety is required, that money is a condition of release, and getting it back later takes a court order.

Federal Court in Miami

Prosecutions in this region are filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The district has divisions in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, and Key West. The charging paperwork names the division. Appeals from a conviction or sentence go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

The Miami Division sits at the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States Courthouse, 400 North Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida 33128. A government-issued photo identification is required to enter, and the clerk's office is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on business days. Docket information is on PACER. The courtroom for a later hearing is the one assigned to your district judge or magistrate, which the docket will show.

If you are arrested, the district's own instruction is that you appear before the duty magistrate judge on the next business day, not counting weekends and federal holidays. In Miami, duty magistrate court is Monday through Friday at 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. at the C. Clyde Atkins Courthouse, 301 North Miami Avenue. The courtroom is posted for that session, so confirm it before you go. That first hearing is an initial appearance under Rule 5. The magistrate advises you of the charge and of your rights, addresses counsel, and takes up release. A plea of guilty or not guilty is entered later, at arraignment.

The Speedy Trial Act sets an outer clock of 30 days from arrest to indictment and 70 days from the later of the indictment or the initial appearance to trial. Those days are often excluded while motions are pending or when the court continues the case, so the calendar you actually live with is set by the scheduling order, not by the raw statutory numbers.

Rule 12 Motions, Discovery, and Evidentiary Challenges

Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12 requires certain objections to be raised before trial. Waiting until the jury is sworn can waive them. In a Southern District case that usually means a deadline in the scheduling order for challenges to the indictment, motions to suppress, severance from co-defendants, and discovery disputes. We file the motions the record supports. We do not hold a suppression issue for a speech at trial.

Discovery is Rule 16, not Florida Rule 3.220. You are entitled to your own statements, your criminal record, documents and objects the government intends to use in its case-in-chief or that are material to the defense, reports of examinations, and expert disclosures. You are not entitled to the prosecutor's entire file on the timetable people expect in Miami-Dade County Court. Separately, the government must disclose favorable evidence under Brady and impeachment material for its witnesses under Giglio. Prior statements of a testifying witness are covered by the Jencks Act. In practice those statements are often produced before trial. The statute's own trigger is the witness's testimony.

The challenges that decide federal cases in this district are concrete. A search of a phone, an email account, or an office can be attacked when the warrant was too broad or the search went past it. A wiretap can be attacked when the government did not show necessity or did not minimize what it recorded. A statement to agents can be kept out when it was not voluntary or when questioning continued after a request for counsel. Other-act evidence under Evidence Rule 404(b), and expert opinions under Rule 702, are litigated before the jury hears them. None of that happens if the deadline in the scheduling order is missed.

Sentencing Guidelines and Mandatory Minimums

This is the legal framework, not a prediction of a sentence. The counts in the indictment, the proof of drug quantity or financial loss, your role, your criminal history, and whether a statutory exception applies all change the number. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines are advisory. After United States v. Booker, a judge is not bound to impose a sentence inside the guideline range, but the judge must still calculate that range correctly and then consider the factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), including the offense, the history of the person, and the need for the sentence. In fraud cases the loss figure under the guidelines is often the number that moves the range, and it is often disputed. Relevant conduct can include acts beyond the single count of conviction. Acceptance of responsibility, role in the offense, and criminal history are applied to the facts, not to a chart in the abstract.

A mandatory minimum is different. It comes from a statute, not from the guidelines, and Booker did not make it advisory. Many drug offenses under 21 U.S.C. § 841 carry a minimum once a quantity threshold is met. Aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A carries a two-year term that runs consecutive to the sentence on the underlying count. A sentence below a statutory minimum is lawful only when a specific statute allows it. The safety valve in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) can do that in some drug cases, and only when every eligibility requirement is met. A departure below a minimum for substantial assistance requires a government motion under § 3553(e). Cooperation is not a private right to a lower sentence, and it is not something to offer in a first meeting with agents.

How the Major Federal Agencies Investigate

The agency on the business card tells you how the file was built. It does not tell you the charge. More than one agency can be on the same case, and the U.S. Attorney decides what is presented to the grand jury.

FBI

Fraud, public corruption, cyber, and violent-crime investigations are often long. They tend to rely on cooperators, email warrants, and interviews of colleagues before anyone is arrested. An early interview is how many of these files get their admissions.

DEA

Drug cases are built around quantity, controlled purchases, wiretaps, and importation. In Miami that often means ports, airports, and stash locations. The statutory minimum, if there is one, is tied to the type and weight the government claims it can prove.

Homeland Security Investigations

HSI works cross-border conduct: customs, money movement, document fraud, and smuggling. These files often sit next to a CBP stop or a financial referral, and the records are international. Do not assume a state arrest at the airport is the end of the inquiry.

IRS Criminal Investigation

Tax cases are document cases. They move from bank records and returns, and a civil examination can be referred for criminal investigation. Speaking to the civil examiner about the facts, once a criminal referral is possible, is something to do only through counsel.

ATF, Secret Service, and program-fraud agents

ATF investigations focus on firearms, including possession by a prohibited person, and are often paired with a drug file. The Secret Service handles access devices and payment systems. Health-care billing cases commonly involve HHS-OIG. The defense question is the same in each: what the agent was allowed to take, and what the statute actually requires the government to prove.

A Published Federal Result

We publish a result only when it can be described without identifying the client. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. A published summary is not a complete list of the firm's work.

In United States v. F.M., in the Southern District of Florida, the client was arrested at the Port of Miami after an altercation with a Customs officer and initially faced a felony. After the defense presented mitigating mental-health evidence, the court reduced the case to a misdemeanor and imposed home confinement and probation instead of jail. Read United States v. F.M.. If you want to know whether we have handled an investigation like yours, ask when you call.

Before You Speak with an Agent

Bring the letter, the subpoena, or the charging document to the first meeting, along with the date you were told to appear or produce records. We will tell you what has to happen before that date, including whether a privilege, a limitation on the subpoena, or a release plan needs to be raised. The meeting is free and confidential.

If the paperwork already names a statute, these pages go further on that charge: federal fraud, tax evasion, grand jury subpoenas and indictments, RICO, and federal conspiracy. Call first if you are still deciding whether to respond at all.