Charged With Retail Theft While on Probation for Other Crimes

My question involves criminal law for the state of: PA

Looking to get an idea of likely ramifications and any other help anyone can provide. My sister has had a 10+ year struggle with heroin and other addiction. She has been to private rehab, county rehab, inpatient and intensive outpatient counseling. She has gone to NA meetings and other county-sponsored "help" for her addiction and has been unable to overcome.

On 11/5/15, she was arrested and charged with 5 counts each of the following: 18 § 4101 §§ A2 (M1), forgery - unauthorized act in writing, 18 § 3921 §§ A (M1), theft by unlawful taking, 18 § 3925 §§ A (M1), receiving stolen property. She plead guilty to a single county of 18 § 4101 §§ A2 (M1), forgery - unauthorized act in writing and was sentenced to 1 year of probation.

on 4/15/16, she was arrested again and charged with 1 count of 18 § 3929 §§ A1 (F3), retail theft - taking merchandise. She was taken to county prison where she has been since. Her actions forced her to miss the burial of her grandmother (not that that's anyone's problem but her own).

How much jail time is she likely looking at?

Is anyone adept in utilizing available resources in PA for drug abusers? Her family wants to help her get better. I'd appreciate if the condescending comments are kept to a minimum. Those of you who have been plagued with a family member addicted to drugs understand how difficult it is. Thank you.

She needs to discuss her likely sentence with her criminal defense lawyer. A misdemeanor of the first degree can carry a potential sentence of up to five years, which gives the court and probation officer a lot of room to work with if they decide that a significant period of time behind bars is necessary as a wake-up call.

Thank you for the answer. I had guessed it would be around 3-5yrs. She spent 72 days in jail 3 years ago related to a forgery charge which was later withdrawn and that didn't wake her up.

Quote:

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Quoting KBoy420

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. Those of you who have been plagued with a family member addicted to drugs understand how difficult it is.

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Yes, I do understand. My son when through it - the addiction, the crimes, the homelessness, etc.

And I learned to understand two things that perhaps your family doesn't understand yet.

1 - Her father and the family members must join Al-Anon so they can learn how to help themselves cope with the addict in the family.

2 - Quite often the family has to just turn their backs on the addict and allow the addict to really hit bottom, even if that means she lives on the streets, sleeps in parking lots or alleys, begs for money on street corners (with the obligatory sign) or turns tricks. No amount of well-intentioned "help" is going to change an addict's ways until the addict decides to change. Just the opposite often happens. The "help" enables the addict to continue the addictive behavior.

Thanks for the replies. adjusterjack - would be curious to get your opinions on if trying to hire a solid lawyer to minimize jail time is helping or hurting our family member.

Does anyone have any links they can send me regarding sentencing minimums or guidelines? A lawyer who had helped my sister in the past said the following to my mother, who called the lawyer over the weekend: "Look, I know money is an issue and her public defender can probably do as good as I could". Now, I'm not sure if this is a true statement, or if they lawyer is assuming that my mother doesn't have the money to pay her what she would need to be paid to help.

The truth is, money is not an issue and we could hire the absolute best lawyer in PA if we wanted to. But if it's going to cost $10,000 to get a 5 year sentence reduced to 4, that probably is not a good use of funds. Also complicating matters is that my sister was on probation in one county and committed this crime in a neighboring county. Apparently she must serve time in both counties now.

Can anyone give any advice or opinions on how they would handle this? Legal opinions and opinions on dealing with an addict would be appreciated.

Well, I know nothing about the attorneys in your area. So, anything I say is going to be strictly personal opinion based on generalities – YMMV. With that caveat, I believe what the attorney told your mother is likely correct – a PD can likely be just as effective in defending your sister as a private attorney (possibly even better). What you won’t get from a PD is feel-good, personalized time, attention, and detailed discussion. Your family may end up feeling like your sister is “just another druggie client” to the PD because, to be blunt, that is exactly what she is to him/her. A PD will have too many clients to spend much personal, “feel-good” time with any one. But, what may feel like brusqueness to your sister and your family may really be more practiced efficiency. That high client load means that the PD also likely has more actual courtroom time, and more experience negotiating with the prosecutors, than the private attorney that will give you the personal face-time (that he/she is charging you by the hour for).

I fully agree with AdjusterJack’s comments. Although I have no personal experience with anyone close to me having addiction problems, I have had many, many professional dealings with addicts and their loved ones. I understand how an addict’s addiction becomes their sole priority – even people they truly love become secondary and they will lie, cheat, and steal from those loved ones to feed the addiction. They will feel terrible about it, show true remorse, and tearfully and sincerely promise to change – then turn around and do it again at the very first opportunity. But, no amount of advice, begging, understanding, love, angry yelling, rejection, or offers of support and help will make any difference until the addict truly desires to change. There is never any way to predict what may bring forth that desire nor is there any way to discern WHICH expressed desire to change (of the many, many, many there will be) will be the true one. In my experience, once the path of addiction has progressed to the point your sister has reached, very few addicts will start any meaningful path to recovery until they hit absolute rock-bottom, if ever. And, rock-bottom can be pretty horrible and will certainly be heartbreaking for the addicts loved ones.

I truly pray that your sister will make that needed decision, but I can offer no help on how to get her there.

She's looking like in the ballpark of a year in jail on the new F3 charge (with the M1 prior, more if they note this was indeed a plea down from MULTIPLE felonies). This is over and above whatever sanction (possibly up to a year in jail) for the probation violation. While the public defender will probably do what he can on the new charge, they likely will not be the one handling the probation violation (and the priority for PD assignments for probation violation hearings is pretty low). This is one place where if you can help her get private counsel to address all the issues together, it might be useful.