Hi, my name is Patrick O?Brien and I am coming to you today with a short video on petit larceny and shoplifting. 

I want to start here because you are probably watching this video in the middle of a total freakout because are terrified you have ruined your life and will forever be branded a thief because of this charge. 

Let me hopefully calm things down a little bit. 

Depending on your circumstances, especially if this is the first time you have ever been charged with an offense of this nature, it is highly likely we will be able to get the charge dismissed either on your initial court date or through a deferred disposition.  A deferred dispotion is when even though the Court finds there is sufficient evidence to find you guilty, will give you an opporutnity to get the charged dismissed after a period of time and the completion of certain conditions. 

Our clients are often able to expunge these charges and move forward without this stain on their record. 

Some initial information.  Petit Larceny and Shoplifting are often used interchangeably to describe the act of taking items from a store without paying for them.  We say petit larceny because we just love our latin in the commonwealth and we are sticking to those guns no matter how dead the language is. 

Some things to know.  Generally, a court will want to know if the items in question were taken past all points of sale, put simply, did a person pass by all the cash registers without paying for an item. 

One twist on that, they don?t actually need to prove a person passed all points of sale if there is some proof that person intended to steal the items. For example, if a person removes price tags tags and placed the item in their coat this could be sufficient evidence to find someone guilty.  

The amount of trouble you are in is a bit of a sliding scale.  One analysis point is jurisdictional. Generally, the more rural the county, the more seriously they take theft crimes.  

The second analysis point is value.  Courts and prosecutors will take the theft of a X-Box or PlayStation a lot more seriously than the theft of a candy bar.  

Lastly, your prior record is really important. If you have never gotten charged before and have a totally clean record, your outlook is a lot sunnier than someone who calls me and has two prior larcenies on their record. 

How do we combat these charges?  Like every case at Dischley Law, we are going to attack it from two angles. The first is determining whether the Commonwealth can prove the charge.  

We are going to review the discovery with you and determine whether there is evidence you actually took these items with the intent to steal or if this was just a mistake. 

The second angle is mitigation.  With a combination of community service and Shoplifting Prevention classes, we work with the prosecutor to achieve optimal outcomes.  It is important to know that completing mitigation is not an admission of guilt, but rather a way to make all parties comfortable that such an event will never happen again. 

With these techniques we often able to get theft charges of this nature dismissed and eventually removed from or client?s records. 

If you have any questions or are charged with Petit Larceny or Shoplifting and want to discuss your case, please feel free to reach out to us at Dischley Law and we will be of service. 

Thank you