Ok.

So instead of reaching in the cart and taking the unpaid stuff, or have her pay for it, detaining for 2 hours is the better option?

None of that is going to happen at an arraignment

Exactly. LP has a very hard standard to meet before they can apprehend. You have to be certain you can prove it and the rules are very strict. That's why I'm saying the girl lied to her father. I bet there were items concealed in the bins under the cart.

This is one situation in which I would hire a lawyer.  
1. Read the crime for which she has been charged.  Learn it, and study the exact verbiage.  You need to know the exact words (because the lawyers and judge won't know the text).  Print it out, give it to the lawyers, be prepared to explain your view to the lawyers/judge (if needed).
2. Hire a lawyer to call the prosecutor's office, to see if they will agree to drop the charges if daughter pays court costs.  Or somehow negotiate with the prosecutors.  
- Some hungry lawyer would probably make a few calls to negotiate for $500 or so.
- Prosecutors don't want to waste their time prosecuting a $200 theft by a good kid with no record.  They'll want some cash for their court costs, however.  

Good luck!

If I forget to scan an item in self check out, I'm a criminal.

When a store employee scans something too many times and over charges me, it is an "accident".

When a store has one price on the shelf, then scans a higher price at the register, that's an "accident" too.

The first court date is an arrainment, no lawyer is required as it is simply for entering a plea and setting a court date, there is a good chance that the charges might be dropped if she pleads not guilty and the judge thinks the case is weak and the court system docket is overwhelmed with cases, which they are in every mid to large city. You can then go from there with regards to hiring an attorney. Go with her so that she is not intimidated by the experience.

I agree. There’s more to the story.

Good lord, this story sounds like the start of one of those bad pornos... did she just not put out and they got mad?

If what you say is true, hire a lawyer, you can probably get this dismissed if she pays a fine or takes some kind of class or something.  Find one offering a free consult in your area, and bring whatever info you have, it shouldn't cost much and will probably save her money in the long run if she's going into a career that requires background checks.

OK Sooner. What's your experience in the criminal justice field? Police Officer? Defense Attorney? Prosecutor? You think the cop, the Loss Prevention agent(s) and the prosecutor are all wrong because "She never left the store"?

Her intent to permanently deprive the store was clear when she bypassed all points of sale making no attempt to pay for the merchandise and without permission to do so.

I'm also a ham too, I guess we're both losers.

They decided to hold her for police as is their right, defined (atleast here) as "To prevent the consequences of theft".

If Target is like walmart the limit is roughly 25$.

If you caught someone stealing your property would you detain them or would you just take your stuff and be done with it?

Correct.  She was cited into court on a misdemeanor charge.  People used to be cuffed and taken to jail for theft/shoplifting, however, now, most misdemeanor's are cite and release with a court date.  

You friends daughter needs to hire an attorney.

Tell your buddy to pay the attorney fee, worth every penny!

Get an attorney. Make Target go to work. They won't.

These two have it, I dealt with it for a year before I found a real job and would never go back.  I did get to tackle one asshole though, and it was worth it.

It is not uncommon for me to go into store X to buy one or two things and not get a cart.  As you might guess, I often end up needing a cart so I take my items in hand into the cart area (past checkout registers), pull out a cart, place items in cart and go back in to continue shopping.

No, but for a Class C theft here you'll meet with one of the city prosecutors typically on your court date.

Call 1-800-ARF-LEGAL

Hundreds of armchair lawyers standing by to take your clepto’s, I mean daughter’s case!

Do not give advice to the 18 year old, actually don't give advice to anyone ever, if you think a conviction for theft is worth saving $5,000.

Shell walk with probation and some chickenshit fines then. Not worth spending $5000++ on an lawyer.

Welp, that's Sooner fans for you...

100% hire a competent local attorney immediately. Don't let this turn into a burden on her future.

She was walking towards the exit of the store with the unpaid merchandise after not scanning the items at the last point of sale-a register-and such actions were going to deprive the merchant of the merchandise and use, or benefit of such merchandise

Open and shut.

1. This is not legal advice, and if everything in the OP is actually true (I have my doubts) then the daughter should get legal advice from a criminal attorney in her area, not the absolutely garbage advice that has been hawked here by people who have absolutely no clue what they're talking about.

2. Arraignments are the court appearance to have the charges read to you and where you enter an initial plea of guilty or not guilty. Generally they will have a meeting in the court house before the arraignment (show up early) where the defendants will meet with the prosecution and the prosecution will offer a plea. This is not where you argue or explain anything, just listen to the offer and decide if you want to take it or not. A trial would be set at a later date.

3. You can also contact the prosecutor ahead of time (not the court) and discuss the case then, being clear to not offer any testimony during that discussion. That's a lot of what you pay a lawyer for. He calls (or emails) the prosecutor and tells the prosecutor that the case is crap and a waste of everyone's time. Then the prosecutor says "I'll offer x, y, and z". Then the defense says "I don't think my client will go for z, what if you offered x, y, and a, instead." Then the prosecution says "I'll do x, y, a, and b, but no less". Then the defense attorney calls the client and says "Great news! I negotiated them down to an offer."

4. A Nolo Contendere "no contest" plea or an Alford plea are both functionally irrelevant for theft cases where the dollar amounts are so small. They're mostly for people who are either facing a significant civil suit in addition to a criminal case and don't want the criminal case to be used against them in the civil suit, or for people who only have a limited legal education and want to be annoying and smug. They're treated as guilty pleas by the court, and it's up to the judge to accept them. I would say to get that verbiage out of your vocabulary for this case.

5. The defendant or their attorney should be asking for discovery as soon as you can. It depends on each state's rules of evidence, but in my state at least, requesting discovery starts a clock for the prosecution to get it sent out. If the prosecution fails to deliver the discovery in the allotted time the defense can move to have the case dismissed. It is certainly within the realm of possibilities that after discovery and reviewing the evidence the daughter suddenly changes her story about how everything went down.

Not even joking: Watch My Cousin Vinnie. It's probably the best example to explain the process.

Cool story.

1) how did it end?
2) what does the law allow for?

Most guys here have never been in trouble and it shows

Why are so many saying hire an attorney for a young girls first offense? A tiny offense at that.  Too many movies. The judge will throw it out or give her probation at BEST. Why spend thousands of dollars on a lawyer?
Ill bet a pmag on it.

Yup, just ask for Judge Roy Bean. Justice of the Peace.

He'll do you right.

"Past the last Point of Sale"

This.

Wh8ch one of those do you think she did?

It's a theft conviction on her record. It will seriously hurt her ability to find employment or even get into some schools. She needs a lawyer.

I don't disagree that hiring an attorney is the smart option (although realistically and in my experience the end result may be no better than going in blind and taking a mediation offer and paying court costs, except you're also paying attorney fees) but a lot of that is silly. But a theft conviction can be seriously damaging for job prospects, even if it is minor.

Printing out the law about simple shoplifting is silly. The judge can probably quote that particular statute by heart at this point. Any court date he probably sees a dozen of them. The girl's father isn't going to be in any position to talk to the judge or prosecutor- he is not an "interested" party in this case.

They're not going to drop the charges in return for court costs without going to court. Now, they might mediate or offer some sort of diversionary or deferral program, which essentially shakes out to the same end result, but this needs to be done with the consent of the aggrieved party typically. The aggrieved party has a very vested interest in a finding or admission (and that is important, as many if not all diversion programs require an admission of guilt, even if no formal conviction results) of guilt. They're not interested at this point in $30 of merch being paid off. They want the grounds to bar a thief from the premises and the teeth to go after her harder if she continues.

You're talking about the lowest level trial court, the prosecutors there are generally the newbies. We have the graduating law students working the cases and handling matters (under appropriate direct supervision of the attorneys of course). A simple shoplifting case would be the sort of thing they'd love to have junior prosecutors try. No, they don't want to ruin anyone's life over it, but they also want to prosecute thieves, and the way this case was described sounds exactly like almost all dumb teen white girl retail theft, and it definitely would to anyone that deals with it on the regular.

#1

This.

I'd probably talk gst the lawyer- expensive but so is a criminal record.

And use a checkout teller.

I've heard so much bullshit from the criminal element on the street and babysitting these cocksuckers behind bars that after a while you can get the attitude that all of them are guilty of something just by the way they carry on like they do.

After a while you grow particularly cold and that is what this girl and her parents should mentally prepare for before they go into that courtroom.

She sounds like a good kid but she is about to get a wake up call through the government system and they should all prepare themselves for that.

Remember, they are a money making outfit and justice does not always prevail.

There’s a good chance that the prosecuting officer won’t even show up and the case will be dismissed.

First offense and with all the circumstances provided? I would bet money its thrown or probation at best....nothing on record.

Be prepared for fines though, thats why theyre there, after all

Not always true.

Our local courts regularly held session on first appearances with probation staff on hand to make recommendations for misdemeanor pleas.

It recently changed with an ACLU lawsuit over it since the probation bitches where not attorneys.

I wouldn't bet on that based on their corporate procedures...

If you get a court ticket you will go see the judge anywhere that you go unless they are simply going to fine you. You know like if you've ever had a ticket for speeding or the like which will have a payment schedule on the back of it.

For that particular offense she could serve up to ninty days in the county jail and pay a fine up to fifteen hundred dollars if the judge actually threw the book at her.

If she has any sort of attitude at all somebody needs to counsel her and tell her to stow it.

The entire point of my posts is that the OP's story is fishy as fuck. Teenage girls lie all of the time, especially about stuff like this. I'm almost certain she wasn't honest with her dad about what happened. If the story is right I as much as anyone want to see her exonerated.  One time I was watching an old woman who clearly had no money. She was having an internal debate about stealing some food from the cold section. I went out and started talking to her, after a bit, I bought her a ham sandwich. I'm not a cold hearted person. I've just seen this too many times. Well off teenage girls are the most selfish, self absorbed, I deserve it people in the world. They will lie to their parents about stealing $25.00 lip gloss in a heartbeat.

BULLSHIT! a theft charge follows you forever, and will cost a person WAY more over the course of your life.

If it's on a summons, the officer's presence may well be entirely irrelevant. Sounds like he just took the report, and had the LP guys sign as the complainants. Depending on the state and their policies and laws he may have zero additional involvement with the case other than his name being on some documents attached to it.

The vast majority of misdemeanor cases around me tend to end up having the defense waive the officer's presence anyway.



As in, prior to arraignment or offer of counsel? That's absurdly unethical and would result in disbarred attorneys all around. Gotta be more to how that was handled.

If she legitimately stole sure. They have it on camera and it looks like an honest mistake. Also first offense.

I would say the chances of her being completely innocent is only about fifty percent.

The prosecutor will probably figure it to be about the same.

"An actor commits retail theft if the actor knowingly:"

Bolded and redded for the blind among us.

The shelf under the cart that the store provides is concealed? So every customer that puts a pack of TP there is concealing the item?

Shes not going to be charged for theft. She will plead down to something lesser if at all and get probation with some court fines.

Again, ill bet pmags on it.

Young girl, no priors, video evidence that it is seemingly an honest mistake, etc

If they didn’t pay, yes.