My question involves criminal law for the state of: Virginia.
I have a friend who is chronically ill in the way she is autistic. It's not overly severe but does happen to give her an urge to take things in stores, along with the fact she can't eat food in public, she can't touch people, she has odd fixations, ectra. I'm usually there to keep her from taking it OUT of said store. We put everything back before we leave.
Well she had gotten into some headphones in an electronics store while my back was turned and I caught her doing it actually as the store manager did too. He told us to leave and I apologized and indeed said we'd leave. However she'd also taken two dvds without me knowing while I was focused on another person in the store. She handed them back immediately, we explained the problem, and mall security was called.
Understandable.
The mall security found it to be a very interesting case, had three officers (of the security force) called to review it. They were all very understanding, but the store manager was not. He was very insistent on harassing her on why she did these things and it actually made the fit she was having worse by raising his voice. Since we were in a store that prosecutes (again, completely reasonable.) Police were called and both of us were charged with concealing merchandise.
How do we work our way through this in court, it's the first time this has ever really happened, neither of us have criminal records and she understands she needs help. To what extent are we really in trouble here? Can anyone explain it to me in detail please?

