Shoplifting, Larceny, Robbery, Theft Thelawprofessor and/or NYClex plzzz help me!!! (Shoplifting)

[joelidort]

I dont know how this stupid mistake came to my mind last night. I needed a windows XP compact disk for my computer. So, I went to walmart to purchase it. But the price was $134, which kind of discouraged me to pay for it. Hence, I opened the box, and took the disk itself and put it in my pocket. And I bought some cherries, and when I was leaving walmart security person came to me, and escorted me to their room. After half an hour police showed up, he wrote down my information, and asked me to come to the court in Dec.22, 2004. He checked my background, and released me right there. He did not take me to jail or police office, thanx to god.
My background is clean, this is my first time I am having problem with the law. I am in Florida. I am a foreign alien, my status is a political asylum. In three months I have to apply to green card. I am an MBA student. I would be grately thankfull, if you could answer to the following questions:

- Do I need to hire an attorney before the trial?
- Is any way to prevent this to be posted in my criminal background, since I am an MBA student, and I have career goals.
- What might be the punishment for this crime: (Florida law says up to $500 and/or 6 months in jail)
- Do they report to the Department of Homeland Security to deport me?
- Do they report it to my college? (i gave them the name of my University)
- Do I have to plead guilty, laceny (sorry for misspelling), or any other?

Please, Thelawprofessor and/or NYClex, help me .....Thank you very much in advance..Please give me any advice...Bests, Joe

 

[NYClex]

Because of the stakes in this case you should hire a lawyer. Look for a criminal defense lawyer who has experience in defending alien perpetrators and knows about immigration law. Ask them before you hire them, a lot of defense attorneys do not know enough about immigration law and the consequences of a criminal conviction!


Now, I am no expert about Florida law, but I know there are certain possibilities to avoid a criminal record. Since your carreer is on the line, you should discuss this with your attorney.

Pertaining to the immigration issue, you probably are lucky. Under section 212 or 237 of the INA you normally are inadmissible or deportable when convicted for a crime of moral turpitude, that is theft for example. But the law kind of gives you one get out of jail card free, if this is the first conviction and the crime has a maximum sentence of not more than a year and you were not sentenced to more than 6 months.

So you discuss this with your lawyer. There is even the chance that this will not be counted as a conviction at all, depending on the adjudication of the case by the state court.

Remember though, you will not be given a second chance. Two convictions always make an alien deportable.

 

[joelidort]

Thank You NYClex

Thank you NYClex, I do appreciate your help. I already hired an attorney, but he is not familiar with the immigration law. He says he can put me in the pretrial diversion programm, which he says help me to drop the charges against me. But he says, he does not know anything about immigration law, and he says only after sealing and the expungement, it will be cleared from my records. However, he says, for immigration purposes, Department of homeland security is always can pull up my record, even though it was expunged. Is he right? What do you suggest me? Do you suggest me to hire him? Or hire the one with immigration knowledge? Or can I handle myself?

Sincerely, Joe

 

[NYClex]

That is the point here, though for other people the recod might be expunged, for immigration purposes it is still there. What you want to do is to avoid any conviction or any pleading guilty. If you can get the charges dropped by joining a program or anything like this, that would probably be the way to go.

Nevertheless I would get a consultation by an immigration lawyer to review things. You probably can stay with your criminal defense attorney as long as he is willing to listen to any advise the immigration attorney might want to give.