juvenile charge of theft

[aloma]

What is the name of your state? indiana
my son at the time was 16 he took a gift card from work and used it without first paying for this card. in turn he used the gift card to purchase items that total up to $65.00.
he was arrested and fired of course and was charged with theft- i.c. 35-43-4-2 a class d felony.
that he was defined as a delinquent child i.c. 31-37-1-1 here in johnson county ind.
what i would like to know is what can we expect the outcome will be for him he did admint his quilt he returned the items and also wrote a letter of remorse for his actions to the store manager.
if we hire a lawyer can you give me an idea what the cost would be to us for their services should we let a pd handle his case?
we are at lost have no idea what to do...anything you can help us with would be greatly appreciated.
our son had 2 years ago stayed away from home for a wkend without permission we had the police retreive him and we had to go to juvenile division over it he was placed on probation for 6 months. other than this he was doing good he just screwed up!he is being homeschooled so i'm afraid the court will look down on him more so. it was our choice to pull him of ps to do the homeschool. don't know what else i need to tell you so if you have any ? please contact me. i look forward to your reply....

 

[JETX]

These are both serious charges... and relatively minor. His statement of remorse and restitution will be looked as positive steps by the court and I assume that any punishment will likely be probation. However, no one on this forum can tell you what the outcome may be. There are simply too many variables. For example, we are only hearing your side of the story, have no idea how serious your local prosecutor takes the issue of 'juvenile theft', and don't know if the merchant will even pursue the matter further.

My suggestion, if you have the money to hire an attorney, do so. If you don't, then the PD should be sufficient for this minor case. Make sure his PD understands the remorse your son has and the 'impact' that it has had in helping him realize the consequences of his actions.

With luck, he might even be able to plead to a misdemeanor and get probation.

It is also likely that you will get a letter from the merchant in the next few months asking for 'civil restitution' to recover the costs of security. That is becoming a very common provision in most state laws..... that the merchant recover an amount (either set, or a mulitplier of the value) to help recover the costs of security equipment and personnel.