Shoplifting on a Military Installation

[AFNCO]

I am active duty military and my wife has been charged with shoplifting from the store on base. Thus she is being charged with theft of government property.For those not familiar with the military the store on base, named AAFES, is similar to a small Wal-Mart. THe store is layed out like a small mall with a food court and other small AAFES shops. At the time, my wife was an employee of AAFES, working in one of the restaurants in the food court. She went into the store approximately 30 minutes before going to work to exchange an item she purchased the previous day. She went to the womens section and picked up two shirts. She went into the dressing room with the shirts, two bags and her purse. The bags contained her work uniform and the item that she was returning. After she tried on the shirts in the dressing room she decided that she wanted to purchase them. She realized that she was running short on time and gathered up the bags and shirts and was off to the customer service counter to return the item. In her hurry she placed the shirts that she wanted to buy in her bag. She went to customer service and returned the item and then proceeded directly to work in the food court. At this time is about 15 minutes prior to when she was supposed to clock in. She simply forgot about the 2 shirts in her bag. Once she entered the common "mall area" she was apprehended by loss prevention and the base security forces where called. She is being charged with theft of government property and must appear before a federal magistrate.
My wife had the means to pay for the items. I know that she would not intentionally steal. She was simply in a hurry to get to work. She never left, nor attempted to leave the AAFES facility. In fact she was going to be on the premises for another 6 hours working in the food court. She has no prior history for any offense. What do we do? We do not want her to have a criminal record becasue of this. She is in school for nursing and cannot be licensed for 7 years if she has a theft conviction on her record. Additionally, she is an immigrant (been in country 1.5 years) and has a conditional resident status. Will this affect her being granted permanent resident status?

[Guilty Or Not Guilty]

Her best chance is to retain an attorney. What state did this happen?

[humble]

I sent you a pm... were you able to read it?

[AFNCO]

This happened in Nevada. We are going to retain an attorny once we recieve the official summons to appear in the federal court. I have been quoted fees in the 1200-1700 range. Is this reasonable?

[AFNCO]

Humble,

I got your message and thanks for the advice.

[humble]

youre welcome... i have no idea about what reasonable is...it could be the same where im at but I got a lawyer for less than that ... although every appearance to court i have to pay him plus an interim fee while in the process of finishing all whats required for me to do. I am not well off so I would think that the money im spending is too much but you know there is a lawyer in one of the sites that i went to and he said the money youre spending on lawyers could not be replaced on a lifetime of denials when youre looking for work etc etc etc...the guy is right. Juts make sure the lawyer is reasonable and has a good knowledge of what he is doing. Good luck and hope for the best ... pls let me kow what happens when you get the chance Try lawyers.com and find out if there are lawyers in your area and you can start calling them and shop around...