Lawrenceville Shoplifting Charges Against Juvenile to be Dismissed
Our New Jersey shoplifting lawyers recently defended a juvenile client who had been charged with shoplifting from the Macy’s in the Quaker Bridge Mall. The police report alleged that our client and his friend had initially been spotted acting suspiciously by a store loss prevention officer who began monitoring them on surveillance, unbeknownst to our client and his friend. Once they tried leaving the store, they were stopped and detained by the store security who called the police to have them arrested. After the clothing and merchandise was all tallied up, it was became clear that it was well over $500 which resulted in our client being charged with a third degree shoplifting crime. New Jersey handles juvenile shoplifting cases very seriously and requires juvenile defendants to appear in the County Superior Court with an attorney to answer the charges against them. Here, the arrest and incident had taken place in Mercer County, but since our client lived in Middlesex County, he was required to appear in Middlesex County Superior Courthouse.
Defending a Juvenile Client Against Shoplifting Charges
Right off the bat the county prosecutor took a hard stance against our client because of the amount of money worth of merchandise that they had allegedly tried to take. Their initial plea offer called for our client to plead guilty to the 3rd degree shoplifting in exchange for probation, however this would have resulted as an adjudication of delinquency on his record. Our client’s parents were concerned that the record of conviction could affect their son’s chances of getting into a good college if it were to come up on a background check or as a question on his school applications. However, after much back and forth, our shoplifting attorneys were able to convince the prosecutor and the judge to allow our client to take a deferred disposition which will result in a complete dismissal of the shoplifting charges after a short period while the charges are held in abeyance as long as our client stays out of trouble. If you or your loved has been charged in a similar incident like the one above, then contact our New Jersey shoplifting lawyers today for a free consultation.
State v. V.P. decided June 16, 2017