Intruder Trespassed On My Property, Filed Battery Charge - Facing Withhold Adjudication With 1 Year Probation

Location: Tampa, Florida, USA

This may be a bit confusing, but I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible.

This situation happened in March of 2025. My grandparents own a vacation home in Florida, and my friends & I traveled there for spring break. It was just us in the house; I am 21 years old and was the oldest person there, everyone else was 19-20. On the last night of our trip, we were outside and driving our golf cart. We were making some noise that disturbed a woman in the neighborhood and she came outside to yell at us and demanded to talk to a “grownup”. I politely informed her that we’re sorry but I’m the oldest person here and she isn’t entitled to speak to any of my family members. We left the scene and went back inside the house.

When we returned to the house, we didn’t lock the door. I went to the restroom and returned to the entryway of my house to see my friend in a heated conversation with the woman. My friends all maintain that they didn’t open the door for the woman - she let herself in. The woman was still screaming and demanding a “grownup”, being very hostile. I tried to reason with her for probably 10 minutes, but she refused to leave. Eventually, she got so angry that she yelled a racist remark at my friend, who is Indian. At this point, we felt threatened so I pushed her out of the house and off of the property. As a result, she fell down the three steps of my front porch. The steps are very small and she wasn’t injured at all.

This woman then called the police and I believed claimed something like we had jumped her and beaten her up. They really tried to incriminate my friend as well, but I stuck with the truth that it was only me who touched her. The story didn’t look great from our side because we had left the scene (this was really dumb, but we honestly thought she was bluffing and wouldn’t actually call police), and our stories conflicted slightly (my friend said that I put hands on the woman because she put hands on me first, which is not true, I’m not sure why she said that). Still, the police completely disregarded the fact that she was trespassing on my property and being threatening due to the yelling and racist language. I’m not sure what she said to them, but I know there are no cameras in the area, so it’s only her word vs mine. Again, there were no injuries. They used my hands being red as evidence of me hitting her, but I informed them that I have Raynauds which causes this, to which they responded “no you don’t” (I do). They detained me and had me sit in the police car, but I was never arrested.

I had a court date back in May that I didn’t know about because they sent the notice to an address where I no longer live. I found out that there was a case against me because I was told I had a warrant for failure appear during a traffic stop in August. I promptly found an attorney who got the warrant resolved, and a court date was rescheduled. However, they offered me a plea deal where I would plead no contest to the charge in exchange for a withhold of adjudication. This comes with 1 year of probation plus community service, court fees, anger management classes, no contact, etc.

My lawyer argued for pre trial diversion since this is my first offense, also citing the fact that she was trespassing and being threatening. However, the state attorney denied it because consent from the alleged victim is needed for diversion, and she apparently wants me to be in jail.

I have no choice but to accept this plea deal, despite the fact that I feel I’m innocent due to Florida law stating that you have the right to use reasonable nondeadly force if an intruder is refusing to leave your property. I can’t financially afford to go to trial.

I’m very concerned with this withhold adjudication for a few reasons. First, I’m concerned with the impact on me being able to get a job, especially as I’m going to be applying for a Registered Dietitian license in 3 years or so. Second, I’m concerned with the impact on international travel. I frequently travel to Canada and am supposed to study abroad in Italy this upcoming summer. I know that this could be a huge issue for obtaining visas. Third, I know that withhold adjudication isn’t really a thing outside of Florida. I’m from Indiana and live in New York currently. I don’t plan on ever returning to Florida. I’m concerned that agencies in the states I actually live in will just recognize it as a conviction.

My questions are: 1. Does anyone have more information on what I can expect these consequences to be like, or other consequences? 2. I would appreciate if someone could explain how these charges were even able to be filed. I feel that the fact that this woman was trespassing should have nullified everything. 3. Is there anything else I can do now, or should I just stick with the plea deal that I agreed to?

Thanks in advance for any help.