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
1 Answer from Attorneys
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.
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