Jewel0604 said:
What is the name of your state? TEXAS
I was accused of a state jail felony from a previous employer for taking $5,000 worth of items from the store. Since I have no previous record....the prosecutor is probably goign to offer probation. does this mean that i will have to pay a fine and the amount of which i took? do they usually want the payment all at once or do they make payment arrangements. Thanks for any help. * also, what is deferred probation?
You will be required to pay restitution to the victim in the amount that you stole--i.e. $5,000.00. You will also be fined in a specific dollar amount. State jail felony carries a possible fine in an amount up to $10,000.00. (It won't be anywhere close to this amount--possibly a few hundred.) In addition to the restitution and fine, you will have monthly probation fees in a specific monthly and court cost in a specific dollar amount. All these amounts, restitution, fine, court cost, will be broken down into individual monthly payments and spread over the probationary period, which will probably be 2 years, the maximum amount of jail time which can be accessed for a state jail felony that does not involve the use of a deadly weapon. Each of these obligations is a separate term and condition of your probation.
Now for the bad news. The reality is that more than likely your probation will be revoked on the basis that you aren't making the payments. You might would have had a better chance at successfully completing the probation had it been a third degree felony so that you could get up to 10 year probation to pay back the restitution and other cost , assuming that you don't have a rich uncle or dad who will pay it for you.
I have written on deferred adjudication before and your restitution is far too great for you to successfully complete a deferred adjudication unless you have a rich uncle that you could borrow the money from.
There is window down at the bottom right hand side of the opening page and above the window is "Search this forum." Type in the window "deferred adjudication," and it will bring up every thread containing "deferred adjudication.