District Court of Appeal of Florida

Petitions for writs of prohibition concerning three orders mandating the Department of Children and Families to take custody of three defendants declared incompetent to stand trial are denied where the statute in question gives DCF no discretion to deny custody and the fact that there are no beds available is not a valid argument against accepting custody of the defendants. The defendants' petitions for writs of habeas corpus are denied where release would not be an appropriate remedy in any of the cases.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/06/2006
• Published 12/06/2006

Judges

• SUAREZ, J., Before FLETCHER, SHEPHERD, and SUAREZ, JJ.

Court

• District Court of Appeal of Florida

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John J. Copelan, Jr., General Counsel, Department of Children and Families and John Anthony Raymaker, Assistant General Counsel, Tallahassee, and Karla Perkins, Assistant District Legal Counsel, for petitioner.


• For Appellees:
  
• Bennett H. Brummer, Public Defender and Valerie Jonas and John Eddy Morrison, Assistant Public Defenders;  Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General and Richard L. Polin, Assistant Attorney General;  Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney and Angelica D. Zayas, Assistant State Attorney;  Murray A. Greenberg, Miami-Dade County Attorney and Robert A. Duvall, Assistant County Attorney;  Linda Kelly Kearson, General Counsel, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, for respondents.