Lawyers step in to help arrested protesters

When Orlando defense attorney Andrew Darling posted on Twitter that he’d represent anyone arrested during the recent local protests, he didn’t expect word to get out so quickly.

But after receiving dozens of emails and voice messages in a matter of hours, he began to search for interns to help take on the caseload.

“The law firm is just me, so when the tweet started spreading like wildfire I had to start getting people to help,” said Darling, who recently qualified to run against Orange County Sheriff John Mina in the upcoming Democratic primary. “Right now, I sent out offers to 12 people I interviewed to bring them on board to work the pro bono cases.”

More than 100 protesters have been arrested in Orlando over the last two weeks at demonstrations sparked by George Floyd’s death after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than 8 minutes. Chauvin has since been charged with second-degree murder.

As thousands flocked to downtown Orlando to march in solidarity with Floyd and other victims of police violence, several nights ended in Orlando Police Department officers using tear gas and pepper spray after they said demonstrators broke curfew and hurled rocks, pieces of concrete and bottles at them.

Darling’s law firm is one of many in Central Florida that have offered pro bono services to protesters, who have mostly been charged with curfew violations and disorderly conduct, what he called “presence crimes.

James Smith III, an attorney at the Orlando-based firm CPLS, has been working with a vast network of lawyers educated at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University to represent charged protesters around the country, mainly focusing on misdemeanors.

Smith said his involvement was inspired by a conversation he had with his son as Floyd’s death and the topics of police brutality and systemic racism became the center of international headlines.

Posts he made to Facebook and Twitter offering his services quickly spread on social media.

“I was telling him that one of the things I promised myself was that I’d help out people who were wrongly arrested for peacefully protesting if I got the chance. Then he said, ‘Well, this looks like your opportunity to do that,’ … and that was the genesis of that post‚” Smith said.

He added that clients accused of felonies, such as battery on a police