Father arrested, looking for advice

[oparsons]

My father was arrested a while back (I believe it was in June, not sure though) and he has gone to court a few times. A previous employer (from over a year ago) had him arrested saying that he stole money/equipment from the company (don't know the exact amount), so he went to court, where they had to extend the process because no-body could figure out exactly what the owner was trying to say my father did or what he wanted. So I come home today and find out that he has another court date set up for Friday, and that the owner of the company has added some more charges and that if convicted it would be a felony. So I came here because my dad is afraid that he can't win against a big business owner when I know he is innocent because I worked with him at the same job. We are both also hunters and have allot of guns, which I know that he wouldn’t be able to own anymore with a felony. So I need some advice, he was a manager of the company over a year ago, and when he left he had the new manager sign a paper stating that the entire inventory was there and nothing had been stolen. I also thought it was odd that they waited over a year to press any charges, and that he keeps trying to add new ones. Somebody also told him that if he made a plea he would be on parole for about a year and after that his record would be wiped clean (which doesn’t sound right to me), so is that possible, if he pleas guilty and goes on parole for a year can the felony then be taken off his record? We also can't afford an attorney so he has a public defender, should I try to take out a loan to get an attorney or does it matter? Any help would be appreciated, Thanks. Oh, and I live in Colorado if that helps.

[moburkes]

You seem to be lacking in the details, but in order for him to be arrested in the first place, there was SOME KIND OF EVIDENCE. What was the evidence which caused him to be arrested?

[oparsons]

I apologize for that, I have no experience dealing with the law, so I won't know what I need to put in here, but if you ask I will try to reply. As for details, to be honest I am not sure (haven't seen my dad in a while, but I will try to get in contact with him today and post after I get off work) all I know is one day a few months back the police called him and said they had a warrant out for his arrest and that if he didn’t turn himself in they would go to his house and arrest him. I would guess that since the owner says some checks were taken he shows some record of missing money for that period of time, as for why he blames my dad, probably because he was the manager and he had the checks in his desk (which since he didn't actually have an office with a door or a lock on the desk all the employees knew where the money was and could easily have gotten to it). As for the inventory, again he probably shows record of missing product for this time period even though the new manager checked inventory before we left and gave my dad a written statement saying nothing was missing. My dad also never got his last paycheck from the company, since it was a year ago and he has moved on to a new job can we do anything with this, still not sure how to prove it though? Thanks again.

[CdwJava]

Has he asked his attorney about the strength of the state's case against him? And if he does not have an attorney, why not? He will need one ASAP.

- Carl

[oparsons]

Sorry it took so long, I just got a hold of my dad. He was a satellite installer for this company, and he moved his way up to manager. The owner, at the time, did not pay for extra work (like if a customer wanted an extra line ran in case they got another t.v. later on and so on) so my dad had the installers inform the customer that this would require extra work and how much extra it would cost, and that was how the installers got paid for extra work. The owner is now trying to say that he has always paid extra for this type of work and that my dad was basically scamming the customers out of more money, which I know is a lie because I worked their, but I don't know if they would take me serious because I am family, and I don't think any of the current employees would defend my dad because I doubt they want to lose their jobs by calling the owner a lier. My dad also had a computer repair business on the side (which the owner said conflicted with the satellite business), and before he got let go he was working on putting a new hard drive in the company computer and was let go before he could format it, so the owner is saying that he stole the hard drive for that computer. I don't know what evidence they have that he stole inventory/company checks, my dad doesn't really understand it either, he says it sound like it's all "he said she said". But he said that one guy told him that if he pleads guilty he will be on probation for 2 years but they will hold the charges (felony) and that unless he messed up in that two year span he would not be a felon therefore he could still use firearms even during his two year probation. While another guy told him that if he plead guilty he would be considered a felon for those two years and therefore would not be able to have contact with firearms during his probation, but that if he hadn't violated parole after the two years are up his record would be wiped clean. I guess they have postponed the case until August 31st so they can finalize a deal. Right now he just has a public defender, should I try to get him an attorney or are public defenders just as good?
Thanks again.