Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

22 yr old female with eating disorder charged with retail fraud

I am a 22 year old college student. I have been bulimic for 8 years now. I have no control over my obsessive/compulsive behavior to eat and purge. Until recently, I was not in treatment although I have been from time to time in the last 8 years. I was caught shoplifting food idems from a grocery store. I realize that what I did was wrong, and since this happened, my family has convinced me that treatment, and medications (which I was not taking at the time of the shoplifting) are the only way to get better. I am a full time college student,I make the deans list each semester and I work in a bank part time and have an excellent record there. If I get convicted of retail fraud, I will lose my job. I also have a DUIL on my record. I was drinking a lot to cover the negative feelings I had about myself earlier, but do not drink anymore. Do I have a defense with the eating disorder? I will stay in treatment, take the medications, and do whatever is necessary to satisfy the courts. My case is scheduled to begin a jury selection next month, can you offer me any help??? Is there any cases in the law with persons as myself suffering from eating disorders?


Asked on 10/06/01, 10:05 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Neil O'Brien Eaton County Special Assistant Prosecuting Attorney

Re: 22 yr old female with eating disorder charged with retail fraud

I'm a prosecutor, not a defense attorney. But I have never heard of a "bullemic/obsessive-compulsive disorder" defense to retail fraud (shoplifting).

Retail fraud is theft. It requires proof that you: (1) took merchandise (2) that was offered for sale to the public (3) while the store was open (4) with the intent to steal (i.e., to permanently deprive the store of the goods or payment for the goods).

You'd have to show that you qualified for a type of insanity defense, which would nullify the specific intent element. You'd have to be examined by experts at the state forensic center in Ypsilanti, and they'd determine if you had a mental illness, and if that mental illness caused you to lack substantial capacity either to appreciate the wrongfullness of your conduct, or to conform that conduct to the requirements of the law. (This is legalese from our insanity statute: MCL 768.21a(1).) From what you said, you know right from wrong, and know that stealing is wrong. So, you'd have to qualify for an irresistible impulse type of insanity.

"Necessity" is not a defense. It it was, then every vagrant could take a 5-finger-discount at Meijer's with indemnity.

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Answered on 12/03/01, 10:02 am


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