Please Advise: 488 Petty Theft Misdemeanor - Mervyn's, Southern CA

Hi. Thank you for your time and your help in advance. I have been wanting to just crawl under a rock for the past two days. Any and every piece of advise is thoroughly appreciated - and thank you so much for reading my post.

I was caught for shoplifting what turned out to be twelve pieces of jewelry and two articles of clothing on the night of this past Saturday, October 7th, 2006. The total value was just under $220, which left me in shock because I don’t wear jewelry and had no idea that it could add up to so much. I was charged with a petty theft misdemeanor. I am hoping to ask for civil compromise if at all possible. Does anyone know how I could go about initiating this, and who I should talk to? Would talking to the LP agent who confronted me be a good starting point? He was very kind to me, and being around him made me feel better – to the point where I asked him to please walk me out alongside the policeman who came to take me away for booking, and I will be writing a thank you letter/card to him, when I have enough emotional strength, to thank him for the compassion he showed me.

The things that have hurt the most in this were the look of disappointment on the LP agent’s face whenever he looked at me after he’d gotten to know me as a person better, for he is a person I admire for looking at me as a human being without trying to stereotype me and trying to help me feel better about my situation, the guilt I felt seeing how amazingly supportive my boyfriend was after the incident, the fact that I am banned from one of my favorite stores to shop – NOT lift – at, and the fear of my clean record being tainted, for I hope to attend good law and business schools to earn my MBA/JD upon finishing my double major next year, and I think law schools check records for things such as this. :(



My entire story is as follows, for those who have the time and interest. I really needed to share it, for it makes me feel so heavy. My sleep has been filled with restless dreams about it.

I'd originally come into Mervyn's intending to buy some jewelry for a new, wonderful college friend who's like the little sister I never had, and an outfit for my boyfriend. I found so many that jewelry items that would suit her, and I knew that Mervyn's did not use censors on most of their items... temptation eventually won, as you can plainly see. I had my tattered but sizable book bag on me, and tossed everything in there in the fitting room after a long debate between my shoulder buddies, “Good” and “Evil”.

I was stopped outside of Mervyn's by an LP agent just before I got to my boyfriend's car. (My boyfriend knows I like to browse at malls and stores for hours on end to relieve stress and stop going a mile a minute, so he likes to stay in the car and chill with music or text-message friends or play games or go to nearby bookstores while he waits. Hell, he’s waited three hours on a stairway landing for me to get out of a class before – and was text-messaging people the wholetime. My boyfriend apparently saw me being stopped, but did not follow or anything. I'd never told him that I've shoplifted before, but I later found out that he'd suspected it when I went shopping before because he'd seen clothes in my bag. When I was being asked if my boyfriend knew I shoplifted, I started to wonder if he did, given that I knew he’d accidentally seen clothes in my bag once, and I am pretty sure that made my answer look like a lie because my nonverbal behavior was that of uncertainty. What sucks about my boyfriend not following us and or asking about me is that it apparently gave the LP agent reason to suspect that we were cohorts and that I came in intending to shoplift, which I didn't. My boyfriend is just not the typical guy – he knows I hate it when people see me when I fall, and falling I definitely was – so he stayed away. I admitted to the accusation immediately and was very cooperative. I lied once, about the guy in the car being my bf, but retracted the lie shortly after. When the LP asked why I'd lied the first time, I said I'd panicked, which was true. (I was afraid that the LP agent would approach my bf and let him know what was going on, since I didn't know he'd seen us or that he’d suspected that I’ve shoplifted. I'd only glanced at the car and my boyfriend once on my way to the car, and he was busy either text-messaging a friend or playing one of his phone games, i.e. java-based pinball. Usually, I sneak up on him pretty well when he's into either of those tasks, so I didn't think he'd notice the confrontation.)

The LP agent was very kind to me, and I was very open with him in turn. Afterwards, a policeman came to take down info and take me in for booking. When the policeman saw that I'd taken a male DICKIES outfit, he asked me who my bf was affiliated with, etc. I never had a clue DICKIES was considered gang-wear! Heavens, I see it in Anchor Blue!! That made things even more difficult, because now there was an image of a big, bulky guy who wears gang-affiliated clothing waiting in a car for a girl who eventually shoplifted. Sigh.

You should definitely look into getting a free consultation with a local lawyer to see how that would work out. I'm not sure if that's something you can do on your own or not... Or whether it's better to have a lawyer work out the bargaining with the store. Many of the lawyers I talked to didn't even mention that as an option. The ball isn't in the store's court anymore but in the hands of the D.A.

If you're not planning on hiring a lawyer you could try to call the store and try to talk to a store manager now, while they still remember who you are, to see if there's a way to get them to drop the charges.