Legal Question in Criminal Law in Massachusetts

I worked for a crematory in which the manager also had his wife working with him as a office clerk. I worked for them for about a month and was pulled over one day going to pick up lunch down the street. I called them and told them and asked if one of them could pick me up due to my car being towed for being unregistered. When I got back to work my boss asked if I wanted to borrow the money from them to get my car out and registered. I accepted. There is more to this as far as why is was not registered and all that but I am keeping it as short as possible. I owed around $400 in back excise tax and the tow was $200 and then I think $75 for the registration. I borrowed the money and got my car back. My boss' wife wrote up a pay back agreement and I signed it. I paid $50 a week for about a month and we had a falling out at which time of being angry I quit. I am however still honoring my agreement and paying back what I owe. However my boss and his wife (kind of understandably) are really pissed off I quit and asked for any and all property belonging to them and the business to be dropped off which I did. When I dropped it off They completely flipped out on me as it was the first time I had seen or talked to them in person since I quit. They then asked for a bucket of copper chips I had. Now the copper chips was basicly some regular wire I had stripped the plastic covering off of and then cut into small pieces and put in a empty 5 gallon bucket. there was less then a quarter of a bucket but I will say quarter just to round it off. The copper came from a friend of my bosses who was a electrician and I am assuming when he did a job for someone whatever wire was left he would drop off at my work for my boss. This was very small amounts. couple of strands a week or every two weeks. One day my boss and I were downstairs and I mentioned I was very broke and had no money for the week and asked if I could skip that weeks $50 loan payment. He said to me why dont you strip some of that wire and take it to the scrap yard in Attleboro. He said I could not have all of it but did not mind giving me some to help me out and still make my payment to his wife. I agreed and started stripping and he even helped me do some. Now fast forward to me quitting, when he asked me for it I immidiatly said but you gave me that. He then said I do not know what you are talking about. I did not give you anything and as far as I am concerned you stole it. I said that was not true and was not giving him anything like that back and besides I had traded it in for cash just like we had talked about. He said then "ah, see then you admit you stole it" I said why are you doing this you know I did not steal it you gave it to me? He said exactly "you F***ed us we are F***ing you. I turned and walked out and recieved a call from the police dept and the Detective said If I did not return it by the following Tuesday I would be arrested for felony theft. I explained it all to him and he said he did not care, bring the copper or $300 as the equivilent. I said I turned it in and it was $60 not $300 and had a reciept to prove it and he stated that they told him it was about $300 worth and that I could have made more then one trip getting more then one reciept giving him the small $60 one and not the bigger one. After all that my question is this, He says he will arrest me, can he? Can I be arrested just because someone says I stole something? How can I prove I did not steal it and that he gave it to me? It was only me and him and it has become really clear to me his wife will lie also? I do not have a huge record but do have a record (no thefts) mostly driving stuff and a couple disturbing the peace all when I was much younger. Please help me.

Thank you


Asked on 2/15/10, 2:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

henry lebensbaum Law Offices of Henry Lebensbaum (978-749-3606)

The short of this is that if you did not do this, then it is one word against another. You can be arrested. Usually the cops will apply for a criminal complaint, and send you a summons.

Call me with any questions.

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Answered on 2/22/10, 9:22 am


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