In 2019, soon after his release, he launched a nonprofit offering “holistic” legal, mental health and social services to poor people who get caught up in the criminal justice system. Both his liberty and his Florida Justice Center are at risk.įollowing his 2015 plea bargain, Bleiweiss served three years and nine months of a five-year sentence at a minimum-security prison. In the end, Bleiweiss’s refusal to accept court-ordered treatment could land him back in prison for a longer stretch. His appellate lawyer, Daniel Tibbitt, did not respond to questions from Florida Bulldog. And it was part of the deal he made to avoid more serious charges and punishment.īleiweiss appealed to the Fourth District, where his case is pending. She endorsed the prosecution’s reasoning that Bleiweiss must submit to psychosexual evaluation and treatment because he was charged with a sexually motivated battery. Judge Marina Garcia-Wood denied Merlino’s motion on March 4. Merlino filed a motion to correct Bleiweiss’s “illegal sentence.” In Broward Circuit Court, Bleiweiss’s lawyer, Richard Merlino, argued that the special condition was “invalid” because his client didn’t plead guilty to any sex crimes –therefore, no violation. When he failed to comply, he was arrested in February and charged with a probation violation. JUDGE UPHOLDS PROBATION DEALīleiweiss also agreed to a post-release psychosexual evaluation and treatment as a special condition of his 10-year probation.
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He pleaded no contest to 16 counts of false imprisonment, a third-degree felony, plus numerous counts of misdemeanor battery and stalking. In 2015 Bleiweiss’s criminal defense lawyer, Alvin Entin, negotiated a highly favorable plea deal - the ex-deputy wouldn’t even have to explain all those bad arrests. This is something that should be appreciated,” Saiz wrote.
Bleiweiss served his sentence and decided to give back to the community through creating an organization that helps people. “He is genuine in his desire to help the community, and all of his actions at the FLJC show this.” “I believe in second chances,” Saiz, who has a solo law practice in Coral Gables, wrote about his association with Bleiweiss. “Unfortunately, I am swamped working to ensure our clients’ freedoms are being preserved,” Bleiweiss wrote in an email. “I know that he did it but without cooperating witnesses, we’re dead in the water.Īsked for his comments, Bleiweiss referred a Florida Bulldog reporter to Alex Saiz, legal director of the Florida Justice Center. “I agonized over the case,” Smith said at the time. Several of the abused men filed civil lawsuits against Bleiweiss and BSO, and accepted token settlements before they were deported, prosecutor Neva Rainford-Smith told Florida Bulldog in 2019. Prosecutors said crucial witnesses could not get past the fear of facing Bleiweiss in court.
Prosecutors wanted Bleiweiss to answer for the crimes that victims and witnesses said they suffered and saw: He stalked, terrorized and coerced these men into demeaning sexual acts.īut their main case, with a potential life sentence, fell apart when five of seven alleged victims were deported. His office is in the district he once patrolled, where he misused his badge and gun to arrest, without lawful cause, young male illegal immigrants. This is familiar territory to the center’s founder and executive director, former Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy and ex-convict Jonathan Bleiweiss. The Florida Justice Center operates out of a low-rise on Dixie Highway in Oakland Park and appears to be flourishing-at least on paper. Jonathan Bleiwess next to a screen shot of the Broward Court Clerk’s docket listing the pending violation of probation charges against him.