Ticketed for Retail Theft

[bettysue45]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Illinois
I am in need of advice. <obviously>
I received a ticket for retail theft. The amount is for $53.46. I am to appear in traffic court. Date of court is in 4 weeks.
I am not sure what I need to do once I go to court and have no idea what to expect. I don't want to say the wrong things.
The situation: Manager of the store starts yelling at me, I am by the check out. I do have a hearing impairment, I could not make out what he was saying. I panic. The manager is pushing me, grabbing my arms, shaking me, I ask him to stop, he doesn't. He takes my purse, pushing me down into a chair. The police are called. While waiting he goes through my purse. I had medication in there that was for my son I had just picked up from Walgreens, with the receipt attached. One bottle was for tylenol with codeine. Once the officers, two arrived, the manager says I stole items and that I am a drug dealer who stole my sons medicine from Walgreens. He tells the officers he shoved and grabbed me. One officer walks away with the manager. The other officer asks me about the medicine, I show him the receipt where I paid for them. The officer who left with the manager comes back with items saying I stole them. The manager of the store states that they have no security cameras and that he just saw me with my purse open. The officer then tells me that if I don't say I stole the items that he is going to charge me with a higher crime, and that I will be in jail for the night. I had said I did not take the items. This scenario was repeated several times, me saying no, officer ended with telling me I was a liar and was going to jail for the night. Wrongly, I panicked and said okay then, I guess I took the stuff. I was asked if I had been arrested before, no I had not. I was then told I was a liar and that they were going to look up my record and they would know. I just sat there in silence. I had not been arrested before.

Onto court date. I don't know what to say or not to say when I go. I have read other posts here and understand I should plead not guilty. I am just so scared. I don't want any trouble. I just don't want to do the wrong thing either. If the judge asks me about what happened I don't know what to say. If I tell the truth, I have no proof of my statements. I cannot afford a private attorney. Any suggestions?

[John_28]

The officer then tells me that if I don't say I stole the items that he is going to charge me with a higher crime, and that I will be in jail for the night. I had said I did not take the items. This scenario was repeated several times, me saying no, officer ended with telling me I was a liar and was going to jail for the night. Wrongly, I panicked and said okay then, I guess I took the stuff.

You probably made a big mistake by saying that you had stolen the stuff. Yes, I know the officer said that, if you did not admit to anything, you would go to jail. Well, guess what? Sometimes, we have to go to jail to fight for our rights.

You could try to convince the judge that you confessed under duress, but judges tend to give a lot of weight to confessions, even to confessions that were apparently given under duress.

You say that you can not afford an attorney. But you can not afford to NOT have an attorney. A conviction here will do a lot of damage to you.

And don't go for a public defender. The public defender works for the state and will try to get you to plead guilty. But, even with a good private attorney, I'm not sure what can be done here. The judge will most likely allow the confession, as coerced as the confession was. And the idiot jurors will most likely believe the confession, because most people who sit on juries are stupid and they believe all confessions.