Rivero v. State

I disagree with the court’s affirmance of the rejection of appellant’s Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.850 claim of ineffective assistance of counsel, which was based upon the contention that he had no choice but to plead guilty because his trial lawyer had lost his file, including an allegedly exculpatory tape, and the lawyer was therefore unable to effectively defend him. Trial counsel, who was the state’s only witness on this issue, was permitted to present testimony directly contrary to the defendant’s — that the file was not lost — by telephone without the defendant’s consent and…