AboutWilliam A Saunders Expertise I can answer general questions about the legal system, how the courts work, corrections and law enforcement in general. I cannot provide legal advice.
Experience The criminal justice system, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and community corrections/correctional education
Question I have really screwed up, about a week ago I was in a Macy's department store in columbus, ohio. the loss provention security gaurds caught me trying to steal $250 worth of merchandise. It is my first offense and I really don't know what made me do it. I understand that they will send me a letter in the mail fining me and they did not call the police but said i will also i will have to go to court.
Now today, i again, made another stupid decision to screw up my life. I was in Macy's again, but in canton, ohio, and I was buying bed sheets. To put it in the shortest story, there was two of the same bed sheet, the pink one was one sale, and the blue one was not. So i switched the tags thinking that it would be ok since it was the exact same sheet just different colors. I payed for the sheet and they didnt say anything, as i was walking out i was again stopped by losss provention and they called the police on me. It only equalled out to a $40 dollar difference and they issued me a court date from a week from now.
i'm a 20 year old college students, i made a really stupid mistake. my record is completely clean right now. but next week im going to have to go to trial for what happened today, and then when i go in columbus i will probably already be on probation.
what's going to happen to me? is there anything I can do to get out of this without facing jail time?
I feel aweful, and i just don't want to screw up the rest of my life or have my family be disapointed in me.
please help, i appreciate anything you can help me with.
Answer Hello,
Being that you have not been in trouble before, you’ll probably get probation for both cases and be required to repay they money and probably have to pay a fine to the court too. You’ll probably also have to do some community service.
The other thing is they may require you to get a screening for alcohol or drug abuse or alcohol and drug education. For a lot of people who get in trouble with the law, it often has something to do with drugs or alcohol. So you could have to be screened for that.
But most likely since you haven’t been in trouble before, you probably won’t have to do any time in jail, especially if you repay the store the money you owe. You should get a lawyer to help you. If you can’t afford to hire one, let the court get you one. But whatever you do, don’t go to trial without one, even the $40 case next week.
