My question involves criminal law for the state of: Florida
Long story short I was convinced by somebody to help them take items from a department store, so this is my first ever offense. Have had a perfect record up to this point.
So I, and said 'friend', both took an item worth less than $100 each. Together about $120-150.. We got caught by theft prevention, friend runs away and gets away. Theft prevention people charged me with both items and took off the sales prices and charged MSRP, causing me to be charged with 1st degree misdemeanor(over $100) rather than a 2nd degree(under $100). The officer didn't read me my rights when they questioned me and they said on the police report that they did.
The point that I am trying to get to is I need to get as close to getting it dropped as possible. I know I shouldn't have done it in the first place and I fully regret it and don't even talk to the scum bag friend or any of the bad news kids I used to hang out with. This is haunting me and will for the rest of my life. I was supposed to join the Armed Forces soon and this stupid petty mistake is in the way. Attorney's I speak to keep telling me I should do pretrial diversion but that's viewed as an admittance of guilt. I want to fight it in court and hopefully get it dropped.
What should I be doing and how should I expect this to play out? Thank you ahead of time for answers.

