Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...Smith, State Atty., Gainesville, for appellees. PER CURIAM. Danny Rolling has appealed from a non-final order granting a temporary injunction against the disbursement of the proceeds obtained from any recounting of a crime, issued pursuant to Florida Statutes section 944.512....

...The statute provides expressly that the lien shall attach at the time of the conviction in county or circuit court. There is no provision in the statute for a temporary injunction prior to a conviction. Appellant asserts a number of grounds for reversing this injunction. The first of these is the constitutional invalidity of section 944.512, based upon a theory that this statute is an improper prior restraint upon constitutionally protected speech....

...Rolling has not yet been convicted, it must be vacated. Therefore, we need not decide at this time whether any future more narrowly drawn injunction could pass constitutional muster, what county or counties would be the proper venue(s) for seeking the lien under section 944.512, or whether there is a sufficient factual basis in this case to support such an injunction....

...Shaw had previously been adjudicated guilty of breaking and entering a dwelling house with intent to commit a felony, and the State of Florida filed a complaint against Shaw and his corporation, seeking to enforce a lien against any proceeds of the sale of his videotape under section 944.512, Florida Statutes (1989), which is a Florida version of New York's "Son of Sam" law....

...Smith, State Attorney, Gainesville, for Appellee. MINER, J. Appellants Sondra London and Danny Rolling contest the lower court's imposition of a lien against the proceeds derived from sale of Rolling's personal property and against his other personal property on the grounds that section 944.512, Florida Statutes, is unconstitutional on its face and as applied. For the reasons explained below, we need not address the constitutional issues raised in the instant case, and we affirm the trial court's order. Appellant Rolling is a death-sentenced multiple murderer. Pursuant to section 944.512, Florida Statutes, in Count I of the complaint and sections 960.29 through 960.297 in Count II, the state sought imposition of a lien in the action below against Rolling's property, especially the proceeds from sale of a book containing accounts of the crimes for which Rolling was convicted....

...Rolling and London were required to file an accounting with regard to same. Relying primarily on Simon & Schuster, Inc. v. Members of the New York State Crime Victims Bd., 502 U.S. 105, 112 S.Ct. 501, 116 L.Ed.2d 476 (1991), appellants argued below and in the instant appeal that section 944.512 [4] , Florida Statutes, Florida's so-called Son of Sam law, violates the First Amendment and is, therefore, unconstitutional both on its face and as applied to each of them....

...In addition, Rolling could not transfer his property to London to avoid the lien. See § 960.29, .295, Fla. Stat. Under the above analysis, the trial court's imposition of the lien may be upheld solely under the cited provisions of Chapter 960 without reference to section 944.512. Thus, we need not address appellants' challenges to the constitutionality of 944.512....

...NOTES [1] In addition to London and Rolling, two other defendants were named, but they did not file an answer in the action below and are not parties to this appeal. [2] See Rolling v. State, 630 So.2d 635 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994) (striking temporary injunction issued under section 944.512 because state's right to lien contingent on conviction and Rolling not convicted at that time). [3] Apparently the two had a falling out of sorts which led to a "cyberspace" divorce in June of 1996 according to London in an interview with talk show hostess Jane Pauley in November, 1997. [4] Section 944.512(1) provides as follows: A lien prior in dignity to all others shall exist in favor of the state upon royalties, commissions, proceeds of sale, or any other thing of value payable to or accruing to a convicted felon or a person on his...

...eeds received by him from any literary, cinematic or other account of these offenses. We do not reach the constitutional issue. We simply quash the action of the trial court, which purported to grant a “lien” in a closed criminal case based upon section 944.512, Florida Statutes (1993)....

...Moreover, even assuming the existence of a res, any such lien attaches automatically under the statute, leaving the action of the trial judge in the instant case superfluous. At such time as something of value accrues to Rolling as a result of his criminal activities in Marion County, the constitutionality of section 944.512 may be raised in an appropriate action, presumably via declaratory judgment or attempted enforcement of the lien. We decline to enter an advisory opinion as to the constitutionality of section 944.512....