Juan J. Michelen has tried more than 60 cases to verdict in federal and state court. He defends clients charged with money laundering, health care and Medicare fraud, Social Security fraud, bank, wire, and mail fraud, drug trafficking, national security offenses, and serious state felonies. Much of that work is finished before opening statements. He has obtained dispositive evidentiary rulings, secured dismissals of charges, and forced the government to drop charges before trial.
In federal court, Juan has defended a foreign national extradited to the United States in a prosecution that reached into national security and foreign policy. He has defended a client in a multi-defendant violence and extortion conspiracy where the government's case ran almost entirely through cooperating witnesses. He has represented health care providers charged with Medicare kickbacks and billing fraud, an executive charged with sanctions violations and wire fraud involving a foreign bank, and defendants charged with importing drugs into the United States. And in civil forfeiture, he has fought the government over more than a million dollars in seized currency.
In state court, he defends the most serious felony charges, including attempted second degree murder with a firearm and sexual battery. In one case that drew national press from the day of the arrest, nearly the entire fight happened before a jury was picked: litigation over evidence the prosecution would not turn over, public records actions against the investigating agency, and subpoenas for the accuser's messages to other people.
Juan treats a case as a data problem as much as a legal one. He challenges the admission of digital forensic evidence, reads device extractions himself, tests location data from carriers, phones, and applications against what the underlying records actually support, and puts forensic reports in front of a jury in a form the jury can follow.
Before joining Stumphauzer Kolaya & Sloman, Juan spent more than 11 years in public defense. He served as an Assistant Federal Defender in the Southern District of Florida and the District of Puerto Rico, and before that as an Assistant Public Defender in Miami-Dade County.
He has also taught other lawyers this work. Juan has trained practicing attorneys in technological investigative tools and digital forensics at the Techniques in Electronic Case Management conference, hosted by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Defender Services, Training Division.
Juan also serves on the Southern District of Florida’s Criminal Justice Act panel, taking appointments from federal judges to defend people charged with federal crimes who cannot afford a lawyer.
Each case is different. Results depend on the facts and the law of each matter.
