help with defense of theft assisting

i live in Mass, Boston. I just got charge with assisting with theft. I gave my friend my own reciept since she is borrowing. She took that receipt and done some stupid thing with it. Now ppl charge me with assisting in theft. The whole thing i never knew about what she would do with it. They charge me with assisting in theft since i did not ask the reason why she wanted to have it...How can i defend this? i feel so helpless.....even thought the girl admitted that she done this without of my own knowlegde...

could you say that again, slowly, and in English please?

" I gave my friend my own reciept since she is borrowing. "

blackblood75 said:

i live in Mass, Boston. I just got charge with assisting with theft. I gave my friend my own reciept since she is borrowing. She took that receipt and done some stupid thing with it. Now ppl charge me with assisting in theft. The whole thing i never knew about what she would do with it. They charge me with assisting in theft since i did not ask the reason why she wanted to have it...How can i defend this? i feel so helpless.....even thought the girl admitted that she done this without of my own knowlegde...

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Let me try to translate:
You purchased something, gave your friend your receipt (remember, i before e except after c) she took that item off the shelf and tried to return it using your receipt. Is that what happened?

Most criminal statutes require the state to prove that you intended to commit the crime (i.e. such statutes may say something like "a person who knowingly..." or "a person who purposely...").

Sometimes, however, you can be guilty of a crime if you should have known something, even if you didn't actually know it.

Can you provide the criminal statute that you are accused of violating?

Also, regardless of what you claim you had known or thought, it's possible that the prosecutor does not believe you, and that he thinks he can convince a jury not to believe you either.

thank everyone so far. Now my case is more bad because they accused of assisting stealing stuff. But all i did was give that girl my receipt and i did not ask her why she borrows it. It's a long story of what she done with my receipt that got me into this big messs. Anyway, now they don't believe me that I have nothing to do with it. She even admit that I did not involved in this whole situation. So how do I defend myself since they dont believe that I have nothing to do with it.

blackblood75 said:

thank everyone so far. Now my case is more bad because they accused of assisting stealing stuff. But all i did was give that girl my receipt and i did not ask her why she borrows it. It's a long story of what she done with my receipt that got me into this big messs. Anyway, now they don't believe me that I have nothing to do with it. She even admit that I did not involved in this whole situation. So how do I defend myself since they dont believe that I have nothing to do with it.

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Did you permit her to "borrow" your receipt while you were still in the stores parking lot? I don't know how else the store would be able to identify you as being the person who provided this receipt, unless they actually witnessed you handing it to her, or witnessed you make a purchase for the exact same items which she attempted to leave the store with shortly afterwards, with the same receipt. How would they know she didn't simply find it blowing around in the parking lot?

At the time you decided to be a good samaritan and lend her your receipt, could you have possibly driven to this store in the same vehicle and were planning on leaving together as well?

Do you have any prior arrests/convictions for theft related crimes?

You claim that you had no knowledge of why this person wanted to borrow your receipt. However, there are only a hand full of reasons for wanting such a receipt.
1. She was looking for deductions on her income tax.
2. She was trying to receive a replacement item, for one still under warranty.
3. She was looking to receive a mail in rebate.
4. She needed it to return merchandise for a refund or store credit.
5. She needed it to leave the store with merchandise she could claim had been paid for.
6. The ladies room was out of toilet paper.

I'm going to have to guess she chose what was behind door number four or five, which turned out to be the big deal of the day.

At the time when my friend asked me for the receipt, i really did not ask for any explanations. All i remember was that she mentioned about applying for some kind of loan. As the reflex, i just gave without thinking or analyzing. After the conversation, she did everything by herself. I was not by her side, nor with her. So, how can i defend myself in this case?

I have a couple of questions...

What items(s) was(were) taken from the store?

How did they know the receipt was yours?

As for your defense, you could just say what you posted here, which was that she asked for the receipt and you gave it to her, and that you did not know what plans she had for it.

blackblood75 said:

At the time when my friend asked me for the receipt, i really did not ask for any explanations. All i remember was that she mentioned about applying for some kind of loan. As the reflex, i just gave without thinking or analyzing. After the conversation, she did everything by herself. I was not by her side, nor with her. So, how can i defend myself in this case?

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I don't know how you expect to receive any useful information without posting what crime was committed with your receipt.

There's several fairly common crimes carried out by petty thieves who work in pairs. One example, is where one person fills a cart with merchandise, pays for it at the checkout and brings it to their car. The second person, will then take the receipt back into the store, fill another cart with the exact same merchandise and walk out of the store with the second load without paying. If they're stopped and questioned, they show the receipt to prove they paid for the items they are actually stealing. So if she did something of this nature, it's going to be hard to prove you weren't involved in the crime.
If you have a prior criminal record, don't expect anyone to believe you had no clue what she was up to.
You see, I save all my receipts so if the product I just purchased turns out to be defective, I will have no problem exchanging it. So if someone asked me for my receipt, I would tell them no, I need it for the reason above. I would also ask them why they wanted it and I have to believe most people would do the same, since it's an unusual request.
Why you didn't question her about what she needed your receipt for, is not what I'd expect from most people. It's going to be hard to convince a judge you were completely oblivious to this woman's intentions.
I know this suggestion comes a little late, but maybe you need to pick a better caliber of friends, so in the future, you can avoid being sucked into someone elses criminal activities.

aw, outonbail, you just have no faith in people. Me either

fairisfair said:

aw, outonbail, you just have no faith in people. Me either

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Actually, I think this post may be one of the few where the OP is telling it like it actually happened. He still hasn't said where he was when he handed the receipt to his friend and he hasn't posted what she attempted to pull with his receipt.

But, he hasn't changed the story or gotten carried away with too much explaining either. This is usually a good sign, because the more someone carries on in an attempt to explain away suspicious statements and basically convince everyone of their innocence, the more guilty they appear.

But having faith,,, I tend to be more of a realist,,, with a little sarcasm thrown in, just to draw attention to the irony.

blackblood75 said:

At the time when my friend asked me for the receipt, i really did not ask for any explanations. All i remember was that she mentioned about applying for some kind of loan. As the reflex, i just gave without thinking or analyzing. After the conversation, she did everything by herself. I was not by her side, nor with her. So, how can i defend myself in this case?

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So you gave this person your receipt because you believed that she was applying for a loan. Then you were well aware of the fact that she intended to use the receipt illegally and/or fraudulently. If you try to use this as a defense, you're saying, "I'm not guilty because she told me she was going to use the receipt for a DIFFERENT type of crime".

That's loaning your friend a gun so that they can go rob a bank and then claiming it's not your fault when they go out and kill someone instead.

thank you for all your answers. When my friend asked me for the receipt, at that moment i never thought about anything else. and that is the truth. I know i have to carry some of that fault since that receipt is mine. But how can i explain to other ppl that i got nothing to do with the case? This is a serious problem i have to face now. Sure she told me to borrow it for some kind of loan, but i never knew she would do such a thing like that. Beside, i never have any history with the laws or the police. I just want someone to help me how to explain to the judge that i never have any intention to help her with her action. When i gave her the receipt, we did not talk that much. ( it happened during a break of the class)

blackblood75 said:

thank you for all your answers. When my friend asked me for the receipt, at that moment i never thought about anything else. and that is the truth. I know i have to carry some of that fault since that receipt is mine. But how can i explain to other ppl that i got nothing to do with the case? This is a serious problem i have to face now. Sure she told me to borrow it for some kind of loan, but i never knew she would do such a thing like that. Beside, i never have any history with the laws or the police. I just want someone to help me how to explain to the judge that i never have any intention to help her with her action. When i gave her the receipt, we did not talk that much. ( it happened during a break of the class)

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Your whole story sounds fishey......I think you are guilty.

blackblood75 said:

thank you for all your answers. When my friend asked me for the receipt, at that moment i never thought about anything else. and that is the truth. I know i have to carry some of that fault since that receipt is mine. But how can i explain to other ppl that i got nothing to do with the case? This is a serious problem i have to face now. Sure she told me to borrow it for some kind of loan, but i never knew she would do such a thing like that. Beside, i never have any history with the laws or the police. I just want someone to help me how to explain to the judge that i never have any intention to help her with her action. When i gave her the receipt, we did not talk that much. ( it happened during a break of the class)

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Borrowing your receipt to use when applying for a loan would have been a CRIME. So you were well aware of the fact that she intended to use the receipt in order to commit SOME type of crime. The fact that she committed a DIFFERENT crime then the one you THOUGHT she was going to commit using YOUR receipt is irrelevant.