For a person to be convicted of a theft charge, the prosecution has to prove a couple of different elements. They have to prove that client took somebody else’s property wrongfully or fraudulently without their permission and with the intent to permanently deprive that person of that property.
Therefore, the initial steps that a Falls Church theft attorney will take when preparing a defense include creating a list of available evidence and finding out exactly what the prosecution has in their case.
For example, if it occurred in a supermarket in Falls Church, a good attorney would look to see if there is any video remaining from that time period. They would find the names of every employee that allegedly saw the client take the item and find out anything that they can from the police report or from the police themselves. From that point, once all the evidence is there, the attorney would be able to begin crafting a really robust defense and attacking all of the weak areas in the prosecutor’s case.
Experts that may be necessary to help prepare a strong defense can include some kind of mental illness expert if there is going to be a defense that the person had some kind of mental illness that compelled them to do it. Certainly, eye witnesses are also helpful in defenses, somebody that can say that you were not there at the time.
Sometimes in situations where an individual was wrongfully accused or where there is a situation where they detained the accused unlawfully, any kind of witness that would be able to speak to the officer’s actions or to their actions while in the store would be helpful.
The role that a criminal lawyer plays when working with a client charged with theft is not only investigating and collecting all the facts and finding holes in the facts against a client, but also preparing a very robust defense and litigation evidence to have a creative outcome to help the client avoid a conviction or avoid a felony conviction.
A person charged with theft should contact a criminal lawyer as soon as they find out they are under investigation for a theft crime or as soon as they are charged with a theft crime. As soon as you can get an attorney acting on your behalf and preventing you from admitting to things or preventing evidence from being collected that could be used against you without you knowing, the sooner you may be able to mitigate the damage of the offense.
A person facing theft charges can get a lot of different kinds of support from an attorney. First and foremost, the attorney can act as the liaison between that person and everybody else, including law enforcement officers, the court, and the individuals at the place where the theft is alleged to have occurred. They can prevent that individual from incriminating themselves and making the matter worse.
An attorney can also provide alternative solutions and options to allow the client the best possible outcome, which may be something different from the norm, and convince the prosecutor to do something exceptional with their case.
They can also be an advocate in telling their story to a judge or prosecutor in the hopes that the prosecutor or a judge will be more lenient on the client or will cut them a break, especially if it is their first time around. If the facts are bad and the client’s record is bad, an attorney will also be able to help mitigate those extreme circumstances and help the individual have the least sentence possible and the least effect on their life.