Attorney Aaron O'Brien

03/28/2026

Tiger Woods was arrested for DUI in Florida as he flipped his Land Rover on its side. He blew .000 then refused a urine sample. Since last October, refusal to submit to testing has become a misdemeanor. Previously, refusal only became a crime if the person had a prior refusal. Will be interesting to see how this plays out for Tiger.

03/24/2026

Oh, you don't want to pay $10,000? Let's make it $14,500!
I don't tell stories of cases here or elsewhere due to client confidentiality. But in this instance I was my own client, so I can!
We had damage to a vehicle and were dealing with State Farm. It was a miserable experience the whole way through. I showed proof of damages and asked for $10,694.43. The adjuster declined to pay the full amount, talked down to us, and wrote "I'm sure I don't need to explain depreciation to you" and "we do not owe you anything additional...." I sued 'em that same day. After a bit of litigation this check arrived....

10/15/2025

How horrible. A month and half in jail when a simple review of the video would've exonerated him.

A Georgia man who spent 46 days in jail after being falsely accused of attempting to kidnap a toddler at a Walmart is now seeking $25 million in damages from the City of Acworth, alleging libel, slander, negligence, false imprisonment, emotional distress, and other harms stemming from his arrest and prosecution.

Mahendra “Mick” Patel, a 57-year-old engineer-turned-landlord and father of two, was arrested on March 21, 2025, following an incident three days earlier at the Walmart Supercenter In Acworth, GA.

Patel claims he approached Caroline Miller, a 27-year-old mother using a motorized shopping cart with her two children, to ask for help locating slow-release Tylenol for his elderly mother. According to Patel, the cart stalled and clipped a corner, causing Miller’s 2-year-old son, Jude, to nearly fall. Patel says he instinctively grabbed the child to prevent injury and handed him back to Miller without incident.

Miller, however, reported to police that Patel had used the Tylenol request as a distraction to grab her son in an attempted abduction, describing a “tug-of-war” over the child. She later appeared on local TV stations, including WSB-TV, recounting the alleged ordeal and claiming Patel fled the store.

But surveillance footage from the store told a different story showing Patel calmly paying for his items with a credit card and exiting, while Miller continued shopping without apparent distress.

Patel spent over a month in the Cobb County Detention Center before being released on bond. On August 6th, the Cobb County District Attorney dismissed the case, dropping all charges against Patel.

Now Patel seeks $25 Million.

Patel’s legal team sent an ante-litem notice to the City of Acworth on September 17th, alleging that the responding Acworth Police officer intentionally charged Patel with felony kidnapping, resulting in “national condemnation” and threats to his safety while detained. The notice further claims that the Acworth Police persuaded the Cobb County District Attorney to secure a grand jury indictment while withholding critical surveillance video from the Walmart.

The City of Acworth, however, has denied Patel’s claim. On September 18, the Mayor and Board of Aldermen voted to reject the ante-litem notice and denied “any and all liability related to said matter.” Mayor Tommy Allegood confirmed the city received the notice from Patel’s attorney, John B. Merchant III, but cited the potential for litigation as a reason for withholding further comment. The city also stated it is not waiving any defects or shortcomings in the ante-litem notice.

09/15/2025

The First District Court of Appeals has held that Florida’s Open Carry Ban is unconstitutional in McDaniels vs. State. Agree?

09/14/2025

Here’s the probable cause statement for the murder of Charlie Kirk.

09/10/2025

Congratulations to Judge Kyle Dudek on his confirmation by the Senate yesterday. The Middle District of Florida will continue to be well served by his appointment.

09/09/2025

I resolved a similar case against a central Florida law enforcement agency. The warrant was correct but the investigation into determining the name was extraordinarily shoddy. The woman who helped a bad guy got away, so the crack detective took to a "database" (we're convinced it was Facebook) and figured out the guy had a girlfriend with a name similar to my client. Trouble is, my client had never been to that area of the state, was 20 years older than the gal-pal, had absolutely no criminal record, and didn't even remotely favor her physically. A 30-second review would show the woman down here in SW Florida was the wrong person. But, she was arrested on the warrant for a felony charge in front of her family, spent a long, miserable night in jail, and had to bail out with an ankle monitor. Of course, the agency still cried and whined about sovereign immunity before we favorably settled.

Jennifer Heath Box had just returned from a six-day Caribbean cruise in 2022 when she was confronted by Broward County sheriff's deputies in Fort Lauderdale.

She spent three days, including Christmas, in jail—but they had the wrong woman.

Deputies were looking for another Texas woman with a similar name, but that's where the similarities end.

Heath Box is 5 inches taller and 23 years older than the woman described in the arrest warrant. She had red hair, blue-gray eyes, and a fair complexion, while the suspect had black hair, brown eyes, and a medium complexion.

Heath Box was fingerprinted during booking. But officers did not compare her fingerprints to the suspect’s until she and her family repeatedly urged them to do so.

"It happens," jail personnel reportedly told Heath Box after she was finally released. An internal investigation concluded that the deputies followed all relevant protocols and policies.

Heath Box filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Broward County sheriff and five of his office's employees. Deputies argued that they had not violated her Fourth Amendment rights because they had made a "reasonable" mistake.

Will the officers be held accountable? A federal judge just made a ruling in the case: https://reason.pub/42abve6

05/20/2025

Seems hard to believe it took a new law in 2025 to outlaw stops of vessels without probable cause. The Boater Freedom Act takes effect July 1.

The Boater Freedom Act prevents unnecessary law enforcement boardings on the water and stops local government activists from restricting the purchase of gas-powered boats. Reducing government overreach and maximizing time spent enjoying our waterways will ensure Florida remains the boating and fishing capital of the world!

04/22/2025

Potatoes O'Brien brought by a happy client - that's a welcome first!

04/06/2025

Honored to be the Attorney Coach for the 2025 Fort Myers High School Mock Trial team! We won the Lee County tournament, Circuit tourney, and made it to States in Orlando! These kids were inspiring to work with; they showed dedication and tenacity throughout the entire process. On a personal note, spending so much time with my son Ben and my intern Shenard before they go off to college was a real privilege. I know very soon I'll look back on this time as the 'good old days.'

03/31/2025

My brother Mike O’Brien’s whirlwind media tour keeps rolling about his now famous “board words” where for over a decade he posted on whiteboards (for a bit of levity in tense corporate meetings) thousands of malaprops, misused idioms, and other verbal gaffes.

A former Ford Motor Company executive kept track of his colleagues' verbal flubs for years. NPR's Eyder Peralta talks with the now-retired Mike O'Brien about his favorite malaprops.