Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Assuming they decide to charge her, she would certainly need to hire local defense counsel to keep it off her permanent criminal record. Visit www.kliszlaw.com to discuss. Tim Klisz

1. Yes, unless your attorney has it removed from her record.

2. No, not likely.

3. A good and experienced Attorney will likely not get her a criminal record.

Daniel Hajji, Esq.

248.865.4700

I don't think that anything court-wise will happen to this 15 year old because she does not live in Michigan. In my experience, Family Courts do not process juvenile delinquency petitions where the youth is not a Michigan resident.

While one county Family Court in Michigan has authority under the juvenile code to transfer a delinquency case to another Michigan county where the juvenile lives for trial and/or disposition (sentencing), the statutes do not extend that power to transfer a case across state lines. So, even if the case could be prosecuted against the youth to the adjudication/conviction stage, there is no ability to oversee the youth on probation across state lines. (The juvenile code says that the focus of juvenile cases is 'rehabilitation' not punishment.)

Delinquency cases are not "criminal", so traditional criminal extradition laws do not apply. (A prosecutor would never authroize state-to-state extradition for a low-level misdemeanor like this even in an adult case.) Therefore, if the youth is back in her home state, there is no power to force her back to Michigan.

On the other hand, even if this youth could be petitioned in juvenile court, as a first-offender with a retail fraud charge, the odds are good that she would not wind up with a formal adjudication/conviction anyway. The court rules for delinquency cases have the "consent calendar" process, which allows the court to put the youth on an informal probation where the court can dismiss the peititon upon successful completion of probation terms. Most courts use this process, and it's generally discussed with the family at the preliminary inquiry (arraignment). The minor does not need an attorney to get this ... although if the court does not discuss this option on its own, an attorney who knows the juvenile court process and rules (not a 'given' among adult court criminal defense attorneys) would know about it and could petition the court for this outcome. Consent calendar does not even result in an adjudication/conviction (no guilty plea is required), so there would not be anything ON her "permanent record".

Even if the youth was formally prosecuted and adjudicated/convicted (i.e., no consent calendar treatment), there are opportunities to set aside / expunge this one adudication under the juvenile court rules. So, the odds of this one adjudication staying on her "permanent record" are almost zero.

As for school contact, if the youth was prosecuted in juvenile court, it is possible that the probation department would contact the school before a consent calendar petition was decided on to see what the kid's academic background was (which might weigh into what the court does, probation terms, etc.). The probation department would definitely contact the school for background information before the disposition hearing if there was a formal adjudication.