Felony petty theft

Transcription

So now I'd like to talk to you a little bit about petty theft. Petty theft under California law is theft of property where the value of the property is under nine hundred fifty dollars and it's taken from somebody with no intent give it back. The difference between petty theft and grand theft basically comes down to the value of the property taken. So where the value the property is over $950 dollars thats grand theft. That can make the difference being a case be charged as a felony or misdemeanor. Petty theft - like most misdemeanors is punishable by a maximum sentence of six months in the county jail payment of restitution and some fines. In the grand scheme of things, petty theft is not the biggest deal in the world in criminal law however one thing that most of my clients find disturbing about petty theft theft related offenses is that it's considered a crime involving moral turpitude which means when people who have convictions for petty theft are looking for jobs are looking for promotions when employers are looking at that they see it as a big red flag. Prosecutors think about a lot things with theft; the value of the property being taken, prior convictions that perhaps a suspect might have and type of theft that might be taking place like embezzlement versus taking something out of a store. Petty theft is not always theft from a retail store. Sometimes it can take place between individuals and a lot of times there's ulterior motives and other things that aren't being told police reports. Maybe it has something to do with a debt that was owed or drug deals, things like that. Being a defense attorney in that type of situation is all about flushing out exactly what's going on in this situation, to highlight that to the prosecution and the judge and to show that no crime actually took place in this was really a false accusation being made against my client. One of the most common defenses that I utilize in helping clients who are accused of petty theft is the intent aspect. In order for the prosecution to sustain a conviction, they basically have to show that the person had the intent to permanently deprive the rightful owner of the property. And so sometimes I can show that perhaps my client was distracted, that they were stressed out that there was some sort of misunderstanding between loss prevention and my client or the store or the rightful owner which caused them to think they were being stolen from when in fact client may be stepped outside the store to use the phone or or was just distracted on with kids. With petty theft it's really kind of an interesting crime people from all walks of life and sometimes really really great hard working people will commit it; people with families people who are really involved in the community. In some cases there's video surveillance, there's admissions which makes legally defending a petty theft case very difficult sometimes it's clear based on the evidence that we receive from the prosecution that most likely going to trial or filing a motion is not going to be successful; in those types of cases sometimes we can highlight my client's background kind of convince the prosecution and the judge to perhaps allow my client to participate in a diversion program some of these diversion programs basically entail completing a petty theft class doing some community work service; maybe paying restitution to the victim and if all that stuff is done in a timely basis sometimes I can get the prosecution to dismiss the case, reduce it to a misdemeanor or reduce it to another type of charge which doesn't reflect theft, So it's better for future job opportunities.