Shoplifting Dismissal by Store
Posted on : 04-04-2009 | By : Legal Information | In : Criminal Law, Other Legal Topics, Shoplifting
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My dad was caught shoplifting at a store in GA in December. The store called the police and he was arrested. After speaking with the store after, they decided to allow him to repay for the merchandise and drop the charges. He just received a summons in the mail today for a court date on April 16. The store owner does not want to press charges. Can he call the DA’s office with the case #, request dismissal and get it dismissed?
I would contact this guy. He answers a lot of questions about shoplifting on this site. He sure seems to know what he is talking about regarding shoplifting.
Retail_Security_Answers@verizon.net
The Civil prosecution for shoplifting is separate from the Criminal prosecution. A person can be ordered to pay and make the victim whole, and still be criminally prosecuted. In your case, the options are to yes try and get victim to talk to the prosecutor and try to persuade the prosecutor to dismiss. In the alternative, some states have a process called a Civil Compromise of Misdemeanor. The victim of the theft signs a formal declaration that states they’ve been made whole by payment to them, and then the defense attorney files this in Criminal court proceeding. This legal process then stops the criminal charges, and then the criminal charges of shoplifting get dismissed. Not all states have a statutory means to do this.
It appears as though the store did not drop charges or the DA declined to do so. This does not seem to be the Civil portion otherwise there would be no court date. Your best course of action now is contact a criminal defense Attoreny to plan your defense. One of the first things you should ak about is Diversion. You can also learn much more from a variety of informed sources at teh following forum site especially for accused shoplifters. Or email us directly at retail_security_answers@verizon.net
http://shopliftingafteryourcaught.forumup.com/index.php?mforum=shopliftingafteryourcaught&sid=e9226f56b061fc733589529e4bd938b0