In the beginning he seemed, knowledgeable, positive and hopeful for my case, which is why I chose him. I had never been in trouble before in my life, and will admit I was ignorant to the severity of 'principle to possession of marijuana' in Florida (which means I helped someone obtain some pot). Before I knew it, he was talking to the prosecutor to make deals for me to become a snitch and give up names for immunity, WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE. When I strongly refused, this made me automatically look guilty and uncooperative to the prosecutor. After months of back and forth, Dustin finally made a plea bargain with the prosecutor and I trusted him to explain to me the details of the vague sentencing agreement paper I was signing. I quizzed him several times on what 'Community Control' meant and he always stated that 1) I would be able to do whatever I wanted as long as it was approved 2) That I would have a curfew, and 3) would not be allowed to go to bars. He said I could go fishing, go to the beach and a few other hypotheticals etc. But I never got this in writing, and that was a huge mistake. After sentencing court, I was informed that I had not signed up for probation with a curfew, but full on HOUSE ARREST. Obviously, I was ignorant of the law and am the one to blame for trusting a lawyer and not double checking everything myself, but I had never been in trouble before and made the mistake of trusting Dustin Stephenson again. I called him looking for help several times repeating what he had explained to me about 'Community Control'. He then stated that he had explained it to me ""to the best of his knowledge"" and he said that my probation officer was just being strict in the beginning, and had I thought of moving across county lines where the sentence might be different. I am not sure how this would have helped as Florida law is the same in every county. His secretary Belinda was also extremely rude when I called and she told me that ""it was an open and shut case and I should be thankful that I didn't get worse? and to stop bothering them. Overall I would say my experience with him was horrible and I would have been much better off with a different lawyer. There were many other problems with him that I haven't gone into, but please do your research and ask other people that have had experience with lawyers in the area before you choose one. I hope that he does not get the chance to damage anyone else?s life as much as he did mine.
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