Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

I have a question regarding a case involving my daughter.

My Daughter:

Is 16 year old, A/B student in school. She has never gotten into fights in school, and definitely not a trouble child. She has drivers license after attending drivers education. Her plans for college is to attend a 4 year University at UofH to obtain a degree in Forensic Science. With a stained record from being irresponsible, I am afraid this will limit her future.

Situation:

We were in the mall and my daughter picked up a ring valued at $25, then placed it on her finger to try on. She was still shopping around for other jewelry while wearing the ring. She found a necklace that she wanted to purchase, and did purchase, while still wearing the ring. She forgot she had the ring on her finger. Her cell phone was in another shopping bag that she had and it rang. When it did, she placed her finger in the bag to get the phone and the ring fell off into the bag. Sounds horrible, however, my daughter is 16 and believes that the world is an innocent place. She believes you can go into an accessory store, and go in & out of your purse without workers getting suspicious. She is very na�ve.

I do not believe she intentionally tried to shoplift.

Court Appearance:

We went to court, yet before we went before the judge, I inquired from another attorney how we should plea. I showed him her ticket, and he came back to tell me that her last name is spelled incorrectly on the ticket so the case would most likely be dismissed. He advised us to request �Trial by Jury�, and we did.

The case has been reset to July 8th.

My question: I pray that the previous attorney was correct and the case will be dismissed. However, in case it is not, in order to keep this off of her record, how should we plea? Is there something we can do to make sure this does not smear her name?

I can not afford an attorney to fight this for us, so I would really appreciate any assistance that you can provide.

Thanks in advance.


Asked on 6/29/10, 2:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Ryan Bormaster D. Miller & Associates, P.L.L.C.

You need to talk to the prosecutor and the Court's probation officer. If your daughter is a good student and stays out of trouble, they may offer you a deferred adjudication probation. She may have to take an anti theft class, keep her grades up and stay out of all trouble for 6-9 months and then the case should be dismissed against her. You can then seal this record as she is a juvenile. I DO NOT RECOMMEND GOING TO TRIAL. In my opinion, that is a risk that is to high without an attorney representing you. Talk to the prosecutor and probation officer and ask for a deferred. Bring in certified copies of her transcript and see if you can get a character reference letter from her high school principal or vice principal. Good luck.

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Answered on 6/30/10, 9:17 am


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