{"id":701,"date":"2018-09-18T10:45:41","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T14:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatersexcrimeslawyer.com\/?p=263"},"modified":"2026-01-31T12:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T17:59:17","slug":"florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Appeals Court Says Trial Court Abused Discretion in Sexual Abuse Case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a case heard by the Florida First District Court of Appeal, a man challenged his conviction for capital sexual battery and lewd molestation. He argued that the convictions should be thrown out because the trial court improperly prevented evidence from being admitted. All convictions must be supported by evidence. However, there are strict rules about what can and cannot be admitted into evidence in a criminal trial. If the evidence that supported the conviction is thrown out, the conviction may also be overturned if there is not enough remaining evidence to sustain it. That\u2019s why it\u2019s common for Florida sex crimes defense attorneys to challenge the evidence admitted into court as they did here.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Abuse of Discretion Standard<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The appeals court hears cases after they have already been decided by the trial court. In deciding whether or not to allow the decision of the trial court to stand, the appeals courts use different standards depending on the issue. For example, some elements are looked at \u201cde novo,\u201d which means the appeals court does not have to give any deference to the findings of the lower court and can instead make their own decision as if they are looking at it for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, the appeals court used an abuse of discretion standard to determine whether the evidence should have been admitted or not. In other words, they need to allow the decision of the lower court to stand unless they find that the decision was not permissible under the law. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/#more-701\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a case heard by the Florida First District Court of Appeal, a man challenged his conviction for capital sexual battery and lewd molestation. He argued that the convictions should be thrown out because the trial court improperly prevented evidence from being admitted. All convictions must be supported by evidence. However, there are strict rules [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Abused Discretion Sexual Abuse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Facing sex crime charges? See how this ruling on abused discretion sexual abuse may help or hurt your defense in Clearwater. 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Want to know your options?","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Florida Appeals Court Says Trial Court Abused Discretion in Sexual Abuse Case","datePublished":"2018-09-18T14:45:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T17:59:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/"},"wordCount":575,"articleSection":["Sex Crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/florida-appeals-court-says-trial-court-abused-discretion-in-sexual-abuse-case\/","name":"Abused Discretion Sexual Abuse","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-09-18T14:45:41+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T17:59:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"Facing sex crime charges? 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