Nancy Grant Released From Prison

Sections: State, News
From: Volume 2, Issue 6

A grandmother of four that could have spent the rest of her life in prison for what lawyers call “unlicensed practice of law” was finally released last month after being arrested on February 19. “I just need to be with my family for awhile,” she said after leaving DeSoto County jail.

Nancy Jo Grant, a 55-year-old dental assistant, was convicted of 19 violations of a Florida statute that she maintains was made obsolete by a constitutional revision in ‘68. This made her the first person to be criminally charged with this violation.

“A few years ago ‘unlicensed practice of law’ was a misdemeanor, not a felony,” the prosecutor told the Sentinel for a story in the October issue. Assistant State Attorney Don Hartery continued, explaining that “It doesn’t usually go this far because people normally stop when they are approached by the Bar.”

An activist in Oregon fighting similar battles against “corrupt” use of the law responded enthusiastically after receiving a phone call from Grant. “I was almost unable to talk, the tears were filing my eyes, and I could hardly speak from happiness to hear her voice,” said Sherree Lowe. “She wanted me to express her thanks for all the prayers and thoughts from all of you. She did tell me they withheld most of the mail I sent.”

Grant was ordered never to file another document into the court system. “What I did was file a racketeering and extortion complaint in federal court with my son and I listed as Plaintiffs. Although the state of Florida lawfully can not punish a federal litigant, I was still arrested,” Grant said. “My [driver’s] license is now suspended till the $33,600 is paid in full and I am still ordered to make monthly payments of $236 a month anyway.”

Not one of the 19 people who supposedly filed a complaint testified against her. ”All of them said I only helped move their cases forward [because] they had been languishing in jail for months, even years, because their right to speedy trial had been waived by their attorneys without their knowledge or permission. The federal racketeering/ extortion lawsuit in federal court was laying open their operations which we, my son and I, had first hand knowledge of, being victims of illegal arrests,” Grant said. According to Florida Judicial Accountability News, Grant’s February arrest was actually a re-arrest for violation of probation because she filed an appeal to overturn her convictions of unlicensed practice of law.

The mediation hearing was scheduled for February 21 in Ft. Myers, Court of Appeals on a federal racketeering/extortion lawsuit and civil rights violations complaint, thus the arrest was timed for her incarceration, so that she would get a DENIED/DISMISSED for failure to appear at her own hearing with the appeals court.

“I couldn’t attend because I was arrested. The case was dismissed shortly afterwards, ‘without prejudice’ meaning I can file to reopen it,” Grant said. Grant was taken back to court on May 8, 2008, where she was sentenced by Judge Diana Mooreland to 180 days with credit for time served, but the 15 year probation and the $33,600 fine would still stand.