Four charges, including two felonies. Zero of them were ever filed. In June 2026 the State announced a No Bill on every count, and our client went home to another state without a criminal record.
This one is worth explaining because of when it was won. The case ended before it legally began.
What our client was facing
He was visiting Florida from out of state, in town to take his family to Walt Disney World. He was arrested in Polk County and booked on four counts: driving under the influence with person or property damage, threat to a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence, and refusal to submit to a breath, blood, or urine test.
Resisting with violence and the threat count are felonies. He had no criminal record at all, and he still does not, which in a case like this is the thing that actually matters. A conviction would have followed him home, through every background check, for the rest of his life.
The window most people do not know exists
Here is the part that surprises many folks. An arrest is not a charge. When an officer arrests you, the officer is making an accusation. The decision about what to actually file, and whether to file anything, belongs to the State Attorney, and it happens later.
That gap is a real window, and it is usually the cheapest and quietest place to win a case. If the State declines to file, the document that closes it is a No Bill or a no-information. There is no trial, no plea, and no conviction, because there was never a formal charge to answer.
Most defendants never use that window, because by the time they hire a lawyer the filing decision has already been made.
What the file actually showed
Three problems ran through the case.
The first was proof of impairment itself, which is a separate question from whether someone had been drinking, and one the State has to actually establish.
The second was the refusal. Our client was bleeding from the mouth. That matters in two directions at once. Blood in the mouth is a known contamination problem for breath testing, because the instrument is built on the assumption that what it captures came from deep lung air and nothing else. It also bears on whether a person in that condition could physically give a valid sample, which is a very different thing from choosing not to.
The third was the amount of force used during the arrest. We are describing what the record showed rather than accusing anyone of anything, and we did not need to argue intent. The injuries were in the file, and the force question sat directly on top of the resisting count, because how a struggle started and who escalated it decides that charge.
The approach
We did not wait for the filing decision and then react to it. We went to the prosecutor before it was made, laid out the impairment, refusal, and force problems, and submitted a mitigation package putting our client in front of the State as a person rather than a booking sheet.
The State reviewed it and announced a No Bill on all four counts. That was the right call on the evidence, and the prosecutor deserves credit for making it.
What to take from this
If you or someone in your family has been arrested and not yet charged, the most useful thing you can do is get a lawyer involved immediately, while the filing decision is still open. Waiting until an arraignment date arrives usually means waiting until the decision is already made.
Two other things are worth knowing. An arrest alone can appear on a background check even if no charge is ever filed, so ask about sealing or expunging the record afterward rather than assuming a dismissal erases it. And if you were injured during your arrest, tell your lawyer and get it documented, because that evidence disappears quickly and it can matter to the charges themselves.
A note on this result
This post describes the outcome of one specific case. Every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Nothing here is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. If you are facing a criminal charge in Florida, talk to a qualified defense lawyer about the facts of your own situation.
