A Families United For Justice Case A list of civil rights violations, judicial misconduct and prosecutorial misconduct experienced by Hector Javier Montalvo in Florida courts.

Highlights of the case:  The lawyer and state prosecutor admitted later the evidence did not exist.  His lawyer never took deposition of witnesses or advised him of his rights.  Hector was not clearly identified by agents.  He was arrested on a warrant; driving with a suspended license.  The location of the business where the agents claimed Hector met with co-defendants and made the transaction does not exist in that particular area.  The police's unlawful tactics were used to coerce and convince  Hector into signing a plea agreement.  He was told he would be sentence to 60 years in prison.  His lawyer, James M. Sowell Jr. showed him the plea agreement through a window.

[Case No: 48-2003-CF-005533-0]  Prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution won a 15-year prison sentence for an Orlando man who supposedly was part of a conspiracy that supplied heroin to drug dealers in Brevard County.  After pleading guilty, Hector Javier Montalvo, was also ordered to serve 10 years of probation and pay $24,000 in fines and court costs.  Prosecutors said Hector Javier Montalvo was part of an organized group that supplied heroin to dealers, who in turn distributed the drug in Brevard County.  This is a news release from former Attorney General Charlie Chris office.  However, the key evidence never existed and there is no proof of Hector being a drug dealer. Why did he plead guilty to?

Hector was befriended by his co-defendant, but they weren’t really close.  Months later the police initiated an investigation and videotaped his co-defendant in a drug transaction.  Hector was later stopped by the police.  They searched his car and asked him where the gun and the drugs were.  He told them he did not know what they were talking about.  In response, they told him they would explain at the police station.  The interrogation led to his arrest.  He was convinced by his lawyer the police had in their possession a videotape of him engaging in a drug transaction handling 14 grams of heroin to an agent and that he would be sentence to 60 years in prison.