Misdemeanor court date in CA

[karen5150]

What is the name of your state? CA

I was caught in a shoplifting incident in Orange County, CA. It was a very stupid mistake and I have learned my lesson, but I have a lot of guilt about the matter. **I was wondering what kind of mailings to my house I should expect from the Orange County court about the court date, pretrial hearing, and everything else - I really want to keep this from my parents because they will be so hurt and disappointed.

I would like to know what kind of things the court sends to my house. I am at the pre-trial hearing stage - will they send a reminder of the date, the outcome, etc???

I am a college student with a bright future, and this is definitely a big problem. Are there any avenues where I can keep this off my record?

Anyone with any experience (even from other cities) and advice to the outcome of my case, please help! Thank you.

 

[seniorjudge]

https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?p=826614#post826614

 

[CdwJava]

There are DA deferral programs often available for first time petty offenders. This will allow you to have this removed from your record after a specified period of time.

Obtain a lawyer or a public defender and ask about your options.

As to what they might mail to you, that depends. You may have to simply intercept all the mail coming to your parents' house... they could mail you just about anything.

- Carl

 

[seniorjudge]

Shoplifters look here first

There are DA deferral programs often available for first time petty offenders. This will allow you to have this removed from your record after a specified period of time.

Obtain a lawyer or a public defender and ask about your options.

As to what they might mail to you, that depends. You may have to simply intercept all the mail coming to your parents' house... they could mail you just about anything.

- Carl

Every shoplifter on here is a good kid who's never done anything wrong before and is going to school and then going to get a good job.

All of these questions have been answered before; I wish the shoplifters would search the forums before they ask what has already been answered.

 

[calatty]

You should tell your parents. Ultimately they will be more hurt that you felt you could not turn to them than mad at what you did. They probably also have resources, like money and help getting a lawyer, to help you deal with the situation. You can keep this off your record, but you need a lawyer to assist you. And there will be papers from the court coming to your house.

 

[teddy_86]

You can call the DA's office in your county

I'm pretty sure this will vary from county to county depending on the volume of citations they handle. This is to give you an idea of how long it took [actually will take] in my case to get a notice in the mail.

It took 4 weeks from the time the police issued the citation to the day it got recorded at the clerk' office, from there, it was at the DA's office within one day. The County clerk's office and the DA office have phone numbers available to the public, you can call them everyday or periodically to find out if the DA had decided to press charges and if they had established a court date for you. They will give you this information over the phone. The person who answered the phone at the DA's office in my county told me that I should expect a notice in the mail within the next two weeks. I am not aware of any other notification in the mail at this point, I will find out more after my court date.

In my case, the police officer who issued the citation wrote down a date and told me to appear in court on that date, however the day before the appointed date came, neither the clerk nor the DA had anything on me, so they told me to wait, and once they got it they told me not to go on the set date but to wait for the notice in the mail.

 

[bardunatorio]

My friend and I are actually in the same situation. We were both caught in Orange County and we are college students. My friend told her mom, but I have chosen to keep this from my parents. So far, I have only got two notices in the mail. One was from the store where we stole stuff from and the other one was from the DA's office. The store sends out a letter to the offenders to pay a restitution fee. The amount you have to pay is up to the store and depends on how much you stole. For me, it was $350. This amount had to be paid within 20 days of the date on the letter. If you don't pay it, then the store can take legal action. However, if you pay it, the store doesn't send anything else to your door about the crime. Your case is then only in the hands of the DA. He/She decides whether to press charges or not.
If you have received the citation from the officer when you were caught and was given a court date, most likely you won't get anything else in the mail from the DA. However, some law agencies/offices might be sending you stuff saying "I heard you were just arrested. The attorneys from so and so can help you fix whatever for a really small fee." So far, I have received two of those letters.
My friend and I appeared in court the date it said to go, but after we stayed in line for 20 mins and was sent to the DA's office, they said that the case was not filed yet, even though it had been two months after the crime was committed. They said that the DA will be sending out a notice to when the next court date will be and that we would be getting it within 2 weeks. Sure enough, we got it 5 days later.
You have basically two options. You can tell your parents or make sure you're the one getting to the mail box first. So far, it has worked for me. I haven't gone to my new court date yet, but I'll keep you posted on what happens since it seems like we're in a very similar position.
By the way, when is your court date? Have you paid restitution to the store yet?

 

[Happy Trails]

What is the name of your state? CA

I was caught in a shoplifting incident in Orange County, CA. It was a very stupid mistake and I have learned my lesson, but I have a lot of guilt about the matter. **I was wondering what kind of mailings to my house I should expect from the Orange County court about the court date, pretrial hearing, and everything else - I really want to keep this from my parents because they will be so hurt and disappointed.

I would like to know what kind of things the court sends to my house. I am at the pre-trial hearing stage - will they send a reminder of the date, the outcome, etc???

I am a college student with a bright future, and this is definitely a big problem. Are there any avenues where I can keep this off my record?

Anyone with any experience (even from other cities) and advice to the outcome of my case, please help! Thank you.

As Bardunatorio mentioned if you have not paid restitution to the store yet; you possibly will be receiving a letter from them. This is a civil fine from the store that is allowed under the law.

Helpful links:

https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=211294&highlight=shoplifting

https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=214179&highlight=shoplifting

 

[teddy_86]

About mail

I got the letter from the store within days [probably one week] of the incident. It was addressed as: PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL. As to the mail from court I never got anything. In my case it was a tricky situation, the officer that issued the citation wrote down 1/17/05 this past Monday, which was a holyday. Because of that I kept talking with the Court/Clerk's office and the DA's office quite often, I was told from both offices not to show up the next business day after the holiday, but to wait for a notice in the mail. Because I read your posting, I decided to call them back again to ask them if I could pick up the notice in person. As it turned out, when I called in, the same person who told me to wait for a notice in the mail, checked my name on her system and said, you were supposed to be in court today. I rushed out of work and got to court at 11:30, about 10 minutes before I was called. After that, the Judge issued bench warrants for everybody else he called who had not shown up. As far as the mail goes, they never sent anything, I paid a fine imposed by the Judge, took the receipt back to the Court Clerk and I asked her if there was anything else pending. She said no, my case would now be closed. So as far as the court goes I never got anything in the mail and if they know what they're saying now, I shouldn't be getting anything else in the mail.