Arrested for Grand Theft at Work

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Florida

I was arrested the other day at the end of my shift at a hospital. I was accused for stealing supplies from the hospital and selling them online. my home and vehicle were both searched. I don't want to say anything to incriminate myself because im not sure what if anything may be monitored. I will say that working in an emergency room EVERYONE walks around with their pockets full of supplies. in a busy ER people don't have time to run to a supply room everytime they need stuff, so many people walk around with pockets full of stuff. and many people leave at the end of the shift with some things in their pockets... im not talking about actual medicines btw, by supplies I mean bandages, wraps, things of that nature. a lot of people also end up with a lot of stuff at their homes after long shifts. I am also a medic in the military, have been for 8 years, so I do have a lot of medical supplies/aid bags at my home, all of which were seized when the police searched my home. I also had some "kratom" at my house that I make tea with from time to time, kratom is a completely LEGAL substance that is to the best of my knowledge still legal to have, use and all that, it was seized during the search as well. Basically I am lost, Ive never really been in trouble with the law before, and the thought of a felony conviction is terrifying me. I spent 24 hours in jail when I was arrested and it was the hardest thing ive ever experienced. id have a complete breakdown if I was actually sentenced to serve jail time. I also am scared to death because a felony conviction will cause me to be discharged from the army, and lose my EMT licensure. Im already out of a job now and don't know how to pay bills so I cant afford a good attorney. Ive been assigned to a public defender, but havnt spoken to them yet. Ive always been told that a public defender is a death sentence so im really scared right now. I understand the reason this is happening and I can accept that, but I do feel like im sort of being singled out and "made an example of" in this whole situation. I don't know what to do, im just terrified right now. I also think they are going to try to charge me for all of the medical supplies I had at home, and say they were stolen from the hospital even tho they were not. im also concerned about why they seized my kratom, i looked again a few minutes ago and from what ive read its still a perfectly legal herb so i don't know why they would have seized it, or if theyre going to try to charge me in some way for it. any advice is very welcome.

First off, you need to engage a criminal defense lawyer immediately.

Second, it is highly unlikely that the hospital called the police and the police obtained a search warrant because you were thought to have wandered off with a few bandages and wraps. I suspect you were suspected of doing a lot more than that, and they likely have some pretty damning evidence (perhaps video or "reliable" witnesses).

yea unfortunately its hard to obtain a good lawyer when i don't even have the money to pay my bills at the moment, and i clearly just lost my job...

im not sure how exactly they managed to obtain a search warrant, the best guess i have is that someone saw that i was selling medical stuff, which i was selling custom built medical bags, but like i said i have, or rather had tons of medical supplies of my own. Im guessing someone at work made a report that i was stealing from the hospital and selling the stuff. the only thing im banking on is that they cant prove the stuff i had belonged to the hospital, which they should not be able to do.

Quote:

---

Quoting wolf4444

---

EVERYONE walks around with their pockets full of supplies. in a busy ER people don't have time to run to a supply room everytime they need stuff, so many people walk around with pockets full of stuff. and many people leave at the end of the shift with some things in their pockets

---

So if all those people jumped off a ten story building you would jump too?

"Everybody does it" is NEVER a defense.

im not using that as a defense, im stating how things work, and at the same time not incriminating myself by specifically stating anything i may or may not have done. Just pointing out how things work in a busy emergency room.

Quote:

---

Quoting wolf4444

---

yea unfortunately its hard to obtain a good lawyer when i don't even have the money to pay my bills at the moment, and i clearly just lost my job...

---

You should be eligible for a public defender. If your county has a public defender's office, you might want to touch base with them and ask when and how that assignment works. It may await arraignment or some other proceeding.

Quote:

---

im not sure how exactly they managed to obtain a search warrant, the best guess i have is that someone saw that i was selling medical stuff, which i was selling custom built medical bags, but like i said i have, or rather had tons of medical supplies of my own. Im guessing someone at work made a report that i was stealing from the hospital and selling the stuff. the only thing im banking on is that they cant prove the stuff i had belonged to the hospital, which they should not be able to do.

---

Guessing is rather pointless right now which is why you need an attorney. An attorney can seek the state's evidence and reports through discovery and then you will have a better idea of what they are acting on.

- - - Updated - - -

Quote:

---

Quoting wolf4444

---

im not using that as a defense, im stating how things work, and at the same time not incriminating myself by specifically stating anything i may or may not have done. Just pointing out how things work in a busy emergency room.

---

Having worked around hospital ERs for many years, I would agree that they might have misc. stuff in their pockets, but, none of that stuff would give rise to a police report or cause the police to go through the effort to seek a search warrant. I'd say they suspect you of something much more serious than pocketing a few dollars worth of supplies each shift.

I am going to speak with the public defender on Monday morning, the only reason im scared about that is because ive heard so many horror stories about public defenders being terrible. And yes i agree, that's why i was saying i don't quite understand why they went through the trouble of getting a search warrant and all. Im sure i wont know the whole story until my public defender tells me what exactly im looking at. Also, i do know for a fact the alleged stolen items are being valued based on the amount the hospital charges patients for said supplies, and not the amount they actually pay for them. IE i was told that an IV catheter was valued at some $50. I have personally ordered IV catheters several times in the past, and they are less than $50 for an entire case worth. Im not sure how the items value is supposed to be determined legally, hopefully something else the public defender can help with.

I'm sure you will be able to present to the court receipts for all the items you were selling in your bags. Confessing on a legal web site you stole gov't medical supplies was not real smart and is not a good defense, if anything it proves you have a history of theft from your employers.

oh no not at all, i didn't steal any govnt medical supplies, none of them were stolen. Theyre given to us fairly regularly, and a lot of them were given to me by other medics, or handed out during training... every so often they let us just go fill up a garbage bag in the medical supply bay so we have enough stuff to last for awhile. i had a TON that was all mine legally that was seized during the search, and im worried they will also be considered as stolen from the hospital... Also false alarm on the kratom, i just found it in one of the many paper bags they left behind, so it wasn't seized. I was also released from jail on pretrial release today, instead of having a bond set. not sure if that is any indication of good news, or just that they trusted me enough to not require bail.

Quote:

---

Quoting wolf4444

---

I am going to speak with the public defender on Monday morning, the only reason im scared about that is because ive heard so many horror stories about public defenders being terrible.

---

They can be as good or as bad as any other attorney. On the plus side, they often tend to know the local system and the people involved so if there is a way to plead or present a good argument informally, they may well know it. The down side is that they most often have guilty clients so plea deals are the norm, and a vigorous defense may not be in the offing. And, they often have a large caseload.

Quote:

---

And yes i agree, that's why i was saying i don't quite understand why they went through the trouble of getting a search warrant and all. Im sure i wont know the whole story until my public defender tells me what exactly im looking at. Also, i do know for a fact the alleged stolen items are being valued based on the amount the hospital charges patients for said supplies, and not the amount they actually pay for them. IE i was told that an IV catheter was valued at some $50. I have personally ordered IV catheters several times in the past, and they are less than $50 for an entire case worth. Im not sure how the items value is supposed to be determined legally, hopefully something else the public defender can help with.

---

Typically, the value of the item is the "fair market value." How that might be determined for hospital goods that are marked up considerably, I couldn't say. But, a bottle of vodka worth $5.49 at a big box store is still worth $5.49 even if stolen from a bar where they can likely get about $40 out of it.