A Fort Lauderdale club owner is facing charges that he started a fire that burned his own vehicle in his nightclub parking lot.
According to this Sun Sentinel article, Anthony Sannizzaro is facing charges of arson. He is the owner of Club Purgatory on State Road 84.
It’s not clear what his motivation could have been but a witness claims to have seen Sannizarro running away from the burning vehicle at 8:30 am on Monday morning. Sannizarro was found to have burns on his right arm and his shirt.
There is a chance he was going to try and collect insurance money for the burned vehicle, but we cannot be certain at this time. Often insurance fraud cases increase when financial times are hard. Perhaps the nightclub was suffering.
Regardless of the “why”, Sannizarro faces a criminal record and potential jail time to go with it.
Charges like arson and criminal mischief involve the damage of property. Had the arson been committed on a house or a dwelling with people inside, the charge and potential sentence would have been far more serious.
Criminal mischief is a far more common offense than arson. It carries a charge that ranges from a 2nd degree misdemeanor to a 3rd degree felony. The charge you face depends on the value of the property damage.
For instance, if you willfully and maliciously damage property in excess of $1,000, you will face a 3rd degree felony and up to 15 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. For relatively minor criminal mischief, or situations where the damage is valued at less than $200, you face a potential 60 days in jail and $500 in fines.
Not all property crimes are minor offenses. If the possibility of jail time is in your future, you are likely wondering what to do and where to turn. An experienced defense attorney will have those answers for you.
Depending on the specifics of your case, we may be able to work out an arrangement for probation instead of jail time or possibly get the charges dropped altogether. In order to make things like this happen, however, I need to hear about your case.