Suspended Sentence / Drug & Theft Charges

[sgtpepper9999]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NH

I'll start by saying that as with most legal matters, I am in a rather complex situation. I'll try to be as brief as possible.

My ex-wife and I finished a brutal divorce. During the divorce proceedings, it was discovered that she committed (2) Class A Theft by Deception and (2) Class B Forgeries stemming from insurance fraud against my home owners insurance.

She was indicted and entered a guilty plea with the following sentence on November 2013:
- 9 months jail (suspended),
- Tour of local county jail,
- Restitution to the insurance company. Only probation was related to the restitution.

I felt this was quite a 'slap on the wrist' but given that this has been her first ever legal issue, I reluctantly understood the sentence.

Fast forward to July 2, 2014. She was working as a pharmacy tech and was caught stealing narcotics from the chain pharmacy she worked for. They have her on video stealing both in NH and VT Vicodin and other Schedule III narcotic. She confessed to the thefts to her employers internal investigators and was terminated. The amount is somewhere near 250 pills.

The store gave their investigation to the local police, which in turn handed it to the County Attorney's office.

My questions are as follows:

Why hasn't she been arrested, yet?

Are they waiting for an indictment?

Once indicted will she be arrested?

The only action on any of this that I know of is that the County Attorney has motioned the court to re-open her insurance fraud case. Would this be to review her suspended sentence? Grand Jury's only meet once a month in NH and they will meet again this Monday. Not sure if an indictment will be handed at this point.

While I can't say I am 'happy' about her troubles, I am in the middle of trying to get full custody of our 5 year old. A Guardian Ad Litem is assigned and reviewing - hearing on this is in October. Obviously, if she ends up serving the 9 month sentence the G.A.L has indicted I would be getting full custody.

I realize the wheels of justice can be slow and deals are made all the time....but in your opinion how likely would her serving jail time be?
When could she be incarcerated? Before her narcotics theft hearing....after?

How does the suspended sentence factor in to all this?

As of this time she did not even follow through an ANY of her suspended sentence. No restitution or touring of the jail. Because I would like to keep my son safe with me...I obviously wouldn't like to see another 'slap on the wrist' for her this time.

Thank you for your opinions.

 

[FlyingRon]

When the police/prosecutor know that they won't have a hard time finding someone, they don't need to rush out and arrest them. Contrary to what you see on TV they just don't go and handcuff the person, read them their rights, and throw them in jail. Yes on felonies, they collect evidence, prepare affidavits, obtain indictments. I've seen it take months and even then they don't often get "booked" until they're in court for some early stage of the process.

Almost all probation conditions (including the standard NH probation conditions) I've ever seen start out with not committing any more crimes while on probation (as well as not using illegal drugs, abusing alcohol, etc...). You get these no matter what the judge specifically imposes (like restitution). In fact, the standard probation conditions requires her to report to her PO any arrests or even questioning by the police. She can get a probation violation if she doesn't do this, let alone that they may revisit her probation and give unsuspend her jail time on the original charge for the subsequent criminal activity.

Probability....I wouldn't say it's 100% but it's quite likely good.

You certainly should keep the attorney handling your custody case well advised as to her status.