William Sims v. State of Florida

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: May 21, 2025
• Docket: 3D2025-0228
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed May 21, 2025. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D25-0228 Lower Tribunal No. F95-33413 ________________

William Sims, Appellant,

vs.

State of Florida, Appellee.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Richard Hersch, Judge.

William Sims, in proper person.

James Uthmeier, Attorney General and Magaly Rodriguez, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.

Before LOGUE, C.J., and GORDO and BOKOR, JJ.

GORDO, J. William Sims (“Sims”), pro se, appeals the trial court’s January 21,

2025, order denying his motion to compel the Office of the Public Defender

to provide him with the record on appeal, including all trial and deposition

transcripts related to the direct appeal of his 1995 felony case. The trial court

denied Sims’ motion to compel, referencing a response from the Office of the

Public Defender that it was not in possession of the requested documents.

Because the response from the Office of the Public Defender refuted Sims’

allegation that it possessed the documents which Sims is entitled to have,1

the trial court was within its authority to deny the motion. We therefore affirm

without prejudice to Sims seeking to obtain the requested documents from

other agencies that may possess them, i.e., the clerk’s office or the State

Attorney’s Office. See Brown v. State, 152 So. 3d 739, 741 (Fla. 4th DCA

2014) (“We reverse because the response of the Office of the Public

Defender did not refute Brown’s allegation that his attorneys possessed the

documents . . . As it stands, this is not a case where there is no contested

issue of fact. On remand, if the Office of the Public Defender produces

evidence that it does not in fact possess the documents which Brown is

1 “Transcripts or record documents that were prepared at public expense on behalf of an indigent defendant must be provided to the defendant without charge for copying.” Brown v. State, 93 So. 3d 1194, 1196 (Fla. 4th DCA 2012).

2 entitled to have, the petition should be denied without prejudice to Brown

seeking to obtain them from other agencies that may possess them, i.e., the

clerk’s office or state attorney’s office.”).

Affirmed.