Accused of Shoplifting, And Need a Clear Record

[wrongfullyaccussed]

To anyone who can help:

I recently was charged at Wal-Mart in the state of Ohio for shoplifting with the total amounting to about $98. I went through the U-Scan line with my roommate with over $200 in groceries. What happened is I paid for about $130 and the rest was said to be stolen. We had many issues with the scanner scanning items several times only to find out they never went through and since there were no places to put the already purchased groceries we placed them in the cart covering up some items. Honestly it was just negligence on our part.... but obviously that doesn't matter to a store like Wal-Mart. We were charged and are now being prosecuted by Wal-Mart but w/o any trespassing charges. The police came got our information and we will be receiving court dates in the mail soon. My question is this what should I do in reference to this matter. I strongly don't agree with it and I do not need this stupid issue on my record. I am a college student who is also looking to apply to law school soon so I can't have it on my record because it might affect my future. What can and or should I do?

Whoever can help me thank you so much. Obviously I will be speaking with an attorney but I also just want outside advice. Please respond as quick as you can. Thanks.

[seniorjudge]

You should hire a lawyer.

(By the way, Wal-Mart, the cops, the prosecutor, the judges, the kid who delivers the paper, and the old lady down the street have already heard your story.)

[wrongfullyaccussed]

Do you think it is possible to get this cleared up without a criminal record?

-To whoever has some advice......

[aaron]

You can consult a local criminal defense lawyer about the possibility of a deferred judgment, or whether your county offers a diversion program for shoplifting and whether you qualify.

[travelplus]

In my opinion if you had problems with the scanner it is not your fault. First of all this could constitute as Scanner Fraud and you can call your local District Attorney. If there was no place to put the items and it was in your cart then you were not stealing it. You were trying to pay and you swiped your card etc. It is the stores loss that they don't see that the machines are not working and there was no"Do not use sign" on the machine.

Furthermore you can get the lawyer to sue the store because they are wrongly charging you. Lets say Shopsmart has a U Scan system and it wasn't scanning the items right we would be liable because of the problem.

If this store had good customer service they would be like I know this scanner is having a problem we can let you keep the other groceries since the scanner is not working properly. Usually there is a person helping you with the scanner so if he or she was not around they should be the ones at fault for not checking to see if the machine was working.

Since you had problems with the scanner you need to tell corporate that they want to charge you for shoplifting. You were not shoplifting you were trying to pay for your goods and there was no customer service agent to bring you to a regular line to checkout.

All in all this incident was not your fault except you could have went to see if some staff member could have helped you but even if you didn't ask since it's the stores responsibility to help customers.

If I was the judge I would drop the charges and would advise you to take legal action against Walmart. If I was your lawyer I would advise you to do the same.

Afterall $80 dollars loss on one broken machine is nothing to Wallmart but to you its a lot since you would have to go through an unnecessary diversion program.

[panther10758]

To anyone who can help:

I recently was charged at Wal-Mart in the state of Ohio for shoplifting with the total amounting to about $98. I went through the U-Scan line with my roommate with over $200 in groceries. What happened is I paid for about $130 and the rest was said to be stolen. We had many issues with the scanner scanning items several times only to find out they never went through and since there were no places to put the already purchased groceries we placed them in the cart covering up some items. Honestly it was just negligence on our part.... but obviously that doesn't matter to a store like Wal-Mart. We were charged and are now being prosecuted by Wal-Mart but w/o any trespassing charges. The police came got our information and we will be receiving court dates in the mail soon. My question is this what should I do in reference to this matter. I strongly don't agree with it and I do not need this stupid issue on my record. I am a college student who is also looking to apply to law school soon so I can't have it on my record because it might affect my future. What can and or should I do?

Whoever can help me thank you so much. Obviously I will be speaking with an attorney but I also just want outside advice. Please respond as quick as you can. Thanks.

Here you admit knowing of unpaid for merchandise. This is not a winable case in my view. I suggest you do as aaron suggest consult with a criminal defense Attorney and discuss diversion if available