Tomorrow morning, 8:30, Fort Lauderdale. Cory Joseph Coddington goes in front of Judge Frank Ledee on the State’s motion for pretrial detention, and I am going to be there.
Not because I have to be. Because I want to be. There are certain mornings that are worth the drive and the bad courthouse coffee, and watching the State of Florida ask a judge to keep Cory in a cell until trial is one of them. I’ll be up in the grandstand. Maybe I’ll catch his eye. Maybe I’ll wave. Hi, Cory.
Let me tell you why the State wants him held, and I want to be clear that every word of what follows comes straight out of a sworn motion that Assistant State Attorney Natalie Zakharia filed on June 10th. This isn’t me. This is the State’s paper. I’m just reading it back to you.
According to that motion, here’s June 6th in Deerfield Beach. The State alleges Cory crashed his vehicle at 565 East Hillsboro. The driver of the other car — a woman who, by the State’s own account, had gotten out to make sure he was okay — found him climbing into her vehicle and telling her, and I’m quoting the motion here, to “stay the fuck back.” The State says he drove off in her car and left the scene.
Then, the motion says, he pulled into the Daily’s on North Federal Highway. While he was in there, per the State, he grabbed a can of White Claw, broke it open, and drank it. He also, allegedly, helped himself to a Frozen Banana Chocolate and ate it, and then strolled past every point of sale without paying. Total damage to the snack economy: roughly eight dollars. He was out by 12:04.
It’s what the State says happened next that earns you a detention motion. When deputies located him, the motion alleges he fought, kicked, and braced against arrest. The State says he announced “I have a bomb.” The State says he told a sergeant “I’ll grab your dick,” attempted to do exactly that, missed, and — this is the State’s language, not mine — “ended up putting a finger in the Sergeant’s anus.” The motion says he then demanded a deputy’s gun and put his hand on it. And after they finally got him cuffed and into the back of BSO Fire Rescue, the motion alleges that while a rescue worker was tending to his arm, Cory leaned forward and head-butted him.
That’s the State’s account. All of it is alleged. None of it is proven. A judge will sort out what’s true. But it is in a sworn court filing, and so I get to tell you about it, and so I am.
Here’s where it gets interesting, and here’s the part the press-release crowd won’t touch because it requires reading more than one document.
The State charged Cory with possession of MDMA. The charge says MDMA. The booking says MDMA. But the State’s own detention motion — same office, same case, sworn — says that what came out of his front left pocket was a “large amount of Methamphetamine.” Those are two different drugs. Two different statutes. Two different things to be holding. The State has now told the court both, in writing, and they cannot both be right. I have no theory about why. I just have the two documents, and I can read.
And one more, for the connoisseurs. The detention motion is a motion about carjacking. It says so in the title. And then it cites the carjacking as a violation of Florida Statute 810.02 — which is burglary of a dwelling. Carjacking is 812.133. The State miscited its own dangerous crime in the document arguing he’s too dangerous to release. Details, details.
So that’s tomorrow. I’ll be in the grandstand watching the State try to keep a man in jail using a motion that can’t decide what drug he had or which statute he broke. I wouldn’t miss it.
And who knows who else turns up. Courthouses are social places. Maybe I’ll see Ron Coddington. Maybe Bill Broadway. Maybe the whole traveling company of clowns will be in the gallery, and we can all sit together and watch the show. I’ll save a seat.
Where does Cory stand by Tuesday? My honest guess: still inside. The State filed under the dangerous-crime statute, a magistrate already found probable cause on all nine charges back on the 13th, and carjacking is the kind of charge that, under that statute, a judge has very little room not to detain on. Add the probation he’s reportedly already on and you’ve got a man with a steep hill and bad shoes. But Ledee will decide, and I’ll be there to see him do it, and I’ll tell you exactly what happens.
See you in court, Cory. I’ll wave.
