Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Re: Petit larceny

I believe your question was recently answered adequately by my colleagues : http://www.lawguru.com/cgi/bbs/message.php?i=262706344&view=a

Re: Petit larceny

If you would ever want to plead guilty you should NEVER do it without an agreement in place in advance. You would NEVER want to plead guilty and then HOPE that the judge will take it easy on you.

The way this is done is that you or your lawyer talk to the prosecutor beforehand, and AGREE on what the penalty will be IF you plead guilty.

You should never plead guilty and then just HOPE that the judge will go easy on you.

Unfortunately, police officers are allowed to lie when investigating crimes, and the #1 lie that police officers tell is "If you tell me the truth, it will go easier for you." That is almost never true. If you talk to the police, it will go easier for THEM -- not you.

However, I am NOT saying you should plead guilty. I am just saying you NEVER do it without a solid deal already worked out.

Yes, it could hurt your status in the country under a visa. And yes it could hurt your chances of getting into college. That depends on whether it is a misdemmeanor or felony and whether the college actually ASKS about that. But many do.

HOWEVER... you are 17.

That means you will be charged in Juvenile court (JDR).

If it stays in JDR (it can be moved to adult court), a conviction probably will not be publicly available.

Finally, for $39.99, you should certainly have an attorney try to negotiate with the victim to see if it can be worked out to their satisfaction. It is sometimes possible to pay restitution and have the charges dropped. This has to be done correctly to avoid looking like the wrong thing.