In The News

SARASOTA- President Trump’s Defense Secretary Appointee Patrick Shanahan withdrew his nomination as a series of violent domestic incidents among family members came to light, including a 2011 incident where his 17-year-old son beat his ex-wife with a baseball bat on Bird Key.  6/20/19

Patrick Shanahan hired the Byrd Law Firm to represent his son, and attorney Derek Byrd says they worked with Police on a turn in date when juvenile court was back in session and says these agreements are standard.

“The notion that kind of got spun recently,” Byrd said. “Was that Mr. Shanahan, Patrick Shanahan, the secretary of defense, had harbored a fugitive or hid his son, or had done something, not above board is in my mind simply ridiculous.”

See the full article and watch the television interview

https://www.snntv.com/story/40682324/shanahans-son-involved-in-2011-sarasota-domestic-incident

IN THE NEWS: A CAREER-DEFINING MOMENT IN DEREK BYRD’S LAW CAREER HAPPENED APRIL 4, 2011

A career-defining moment in Derek Byrd’s law career happened April 4, 2011, outside the Hardee County Correctional Institution.

Byrd was there to greet Derrick Williams. Wrongfully convicted on a rape charge in Manatee County in 1993, Williams had spent 18 years in prison. Byrd, a defense attorney in Sarasota, had been part of the legal team, led by the Innocence Project of Florida, which pursued the case. A judge vacated the conviction after a hearing where newly discovered DNA evidence undermined the guilty verdict. Read more below
http://www.businessobserverfl.com/section/detail/birds-nest/

MR. BYRD REPRESENTED AN ATTORNEY AND THE CASE WAS SUCCESSFUL ON APPEAL

A criminal case against a suspected gang member is in jeopardy again after a court ruling Wednesday criticized the way the state has targeted the country’s street gangs.

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MR. BYRD TALKING ABOUT DUI BREATH TESTS BEING THROWN OUT OF COURT.

No 2nd chances in old DUI cases. The breath-alcohol test used for years to help convict tens of thousands DUI defendants across the state might not have been as reliable as prosecutors portrayed…

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BYRD NAMED TO LIST OF TOP U.S. LAWYERS

Derek Byrd, a partner at The Byrd Law Firm in Sarasota, was recently named in the criminal defense category in the 2009 edition of the”Best Lawyers in America” publication.

A FALSE ARREST, ON HEARSAY AND EYEWITNESS MISTAKES

Derek Byrd represents Cooper Moore on a case he called a “systemic failure”. Cooper Moore and his girlfriend had just taken their first vacation together — a cruise to Jamaica and Grand Cayman. As the ship docked, they were met by two police officers