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3rd DCAOctober 30, 2024Affirmed⭐ Notable

Van Lent v. The Everglades Foundation, Inc.

Case No. 3D2023-1135

A former employee of the Everglades Foundation was adjudicated guilty of indirect criminal contempt for a massive post-injunction data-deletion campaign (760,000+ files, 11,000+ emails, anti-forensic software, repeated hard-drive reformatting) in violation of a temporary injunction entered in the Foundation's trade-secret suit. The Third District affirmed, holding competent substantial evidence supported the intent finding and that the trial court's appointment of the opposing party's counsel to assist in prosecuting the contempt under Fla. R. Crim. P. 3.840(d) was not fundamental error and did not deny due process. Judge Miller concurred dubitante, questioning whether such appointments may be structural error.

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