Green Cove's Facebook Arrest Falls Flat

Sex Charges Dropped Because of Statute of Limitations

This is one of the images from a Facebook spread publicizing the arrest of a Green Cove man in March.

The high-profile case of Green Cove man charged with molesting a teenage boy has concluded without any of the initial fanfare. All charges against Joseph Marroletti Jr. were dropped late last month.

“After reviewing all the evidence in the above-style case, the undersigned assistant state attorney declines to prosecute this defendant for these charges,” Ashlee Young Terry wrote to the court.

Green Cove Springs police had been mistaken in their interpretation of how the statute of limitations applied to the charges against Marroletti. Police Chief Shawn Hines defended the department, saying officers had not knowingly ignored the statute of limitations when making the arrest. He said changes to Florida law in recent years had muddied the waters.

Arrest of Accused Sex Offender May Have Come Too Late

Statutes of limitation are an attempt to maintain fairness in the justice system by ensuring that evidence and witness testimony remain reliable as memories fade and exculpatory evidence is lost.

One way that police agencies avoid procedural errors is to apply for a court-approved arrest warrant through the State Attorney’s Office, which would have ensured a high level of lawyerly scrutiny. Instead, Green Cove police conducted a “probable-cause arrest,” based on what they deemed to have been a strong case.

Police were sufficiently confident to actually publicize the March 19 arrest with a three-photo layout on Facebook under the headline “ARRESTED.” The post was shared among Clay County Facebook groups and received dozens of comments, if not hundreds.