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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    4

    Default Caught Shoplifting CD's

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: Tennessee


    Okay so here is the deal in Feb. my friend and i got shoplifitng 4 blank CD's he had them all i got in trouble bc they said I was looking out for him. We went to jail overnight and got bailed out in the morning. Once we went to court we both got a judicial diversion where we had to pay around $235 and had to do 16 hours of coummity service each. We had until Feb of 2011 to do so... soooo this being the first criminal chrage I ever got I thought that was it. I left a few weeks later after we were sentenced in March for Califorina to start working for ADT. I worked out there and then got a call from my dad around midsummer telling me I had missed a court date. So it got resecudled and as soon as I can I came home. I missed the second court date and they filed a bench warrent for my arrest so I went right then and turned myself in and had to pay off the ticket and my new bond which was set at $400. Now I have to go to court again in a few days I think to explain why I missed court or something I'm honestly not 100% sure what will happen. I am 20 years old and a college student. This is the first thing I've done wrong and I'm honestly so scared. I'm really not the jail type I just made a poor judgement of friends and it got me into trouble. I plan on being honest with the judge about where I am and explain to him I had trouble getting the finances to get home on time (i ended up having to take a bus back home because I couldn't afford the plane ticket). I plan on asking for the courts merceny on me and telling them I'm a college student at a good school and I really don't want me being dumb and making this mistake to ruin the rest of my life....

    Now what my question is the worst, best, and most likely thing to happen to me when I go to court in a few days. I guess it depends on the judge but I think I might be okay. I'm going to dress nice I don't do drugs, drink, or have any problems like that. I'm just a student at a local University that made a mistake, atleast I hope thats how the judge looks at it lol....

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Earth
    Posts
    207

    Default Re: Caught Shoplifting CD's

    "Lol?" Is that a new punctuation mark I'm not familiar with, or do you actually think this is funny? If you treat the whole thing as some kind of joke, you probably won't end up with the best outcome regardless of how you dress.

    Anyway, if attending all of your court dates was a condition of your diversion (and I'd tend to assume it was), you could be charged with the original shoplifting again, as well as failure to appear. I'd recommend getting a good lawyer.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Caught Shoplifting CD's

    no i do take it serious i didn't mean to put the lol, its just a habbit of typing.. what do you think will end up happening to me tho? I start school in a month but do you really think I will end up in jail? I really don't know much about anything when it comes to the law. Like I said I've never been in any sort of trouble. But by the way you made it sound you think I'm pretty much going to jail?

  4. #4

    Default Re: Caught Shoplifting CD's

    Quote Quoting easttnqb
    View Post
    I plan on asking for the courts merceny on me and telling them I'm a college student at a good school and I really don't want me being dumb and making this mistake to ruin the rest of my life....

    What does "good school" has to do with anything? Nobody cares if you are a student of Harvard university or some 10th rate school. If anything, mentioning that may irritate the judge and the jury. If you are actually a good student with good grades, that may help you.

    The fact that you failed to notify the court that you were unable to make it to the second date (after you missed the first one) looks pretty bad.

    I agree that you need a lawyer. You can also say in the court that you thought that community service, etc. were the only requirements of your diversion program and if you knew that you would have to be showing up in the court, you wouldn't leave the town. Tell them that you were very lucky that you got into the diversion program and you had no reason to screw this up, and all of this happened as a result of a misunderstanding on your part. However, if you remember signing an obligation to appear in the court in addition to other conditions of your diversion, then "I didn't know" excuse wouldn't fly. You would need to claim that you got distracted and forgot or something.

    If they charge you with shoplifting + failure to appear, then, yeah, some jail time is possible. If they believe you that your failure to appear was a result of unfortunate circumstances and not a deliberate negligence on your part, you may be fine. If you get a good lawyer and really think through what you will say in court, you may get a good outcome and possibly even a chance to start all over (I am referring to diversion).

    Good luck.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Caught Shoplifting CD's

    i mean as you can tell i don't really know much about this. the reason all this happened was i got a summer job working for ADT out in cali and by the time I found out about the court date I couldn't make it back in time because I went out there on my own and money was an issues. I'm a very independant person. & honestly I really don't have the money for a lawyer which is what scares me tbh. I really had no way back and I tried my hardest to get back in time. Thats what ended up hurting me. When I left I thought I had until Feb 2011 to pay it off but I was obviously deff mistaken.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Caught Shoplifting CD's

    i didn't get a lawyer, i walked in was there no longer than 5 mins a lady called me up said i wouldn't have to talk to the judge and since i paid the ticket off already all i had to do was finish my community service by feb 2011 and i'm fine and to atleast have some done by october 1st. so no trouble & i was perfectly fine.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Caught Shoplifting CD's

    Wow, congrats! That's the best outcome you could hope for. Don't miss any court days from now on.

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