Our New Jersey Somerset County lawyers recently defended a client who had been arrested and charged with a disorderly persons offense of somerset county after being allegedly caught stealing shoes from a DSW Store in Somerset County, New Jersey. Our client had been caught and arrested with her boyfriend because the two were alleged to have conspired together by stealing 2 pairs of shoes. However, based on our review of the evidence that the prosecutor and store security provided to our office, it appeared that our client had not been caught with any actual merchandise on her person and the surveillance video only showed her boyfriend taking the merchandise without payment.
Our client had never been in trouble before and therefore it was very important to keep her from getting a criminal record from this incident. So when we appeared in court, our attorney requested a meeting with the prosecutor and the security guard, also known as the loss prevention officer, who had initially detained our client and called the cops. The loss prevention officer acknowledged that he did not have our client on video concealing or stealing any merchandise and did not find anything on her. But he was adamant that he had seen her helping to conceal the merchandise when he was watching her in person. However, based on the lack on clear evidence, our attorney was able to successfully argue to the prosecutor and loss prevention officer that there was not enough evidence against our client to prove the criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt. Based on the facts above, the municipal court judge agreed to completely dismiss the Somerset County charges against our client. Moreover, upon the dismissal we made a motion for an early expungement of the Somerset County arrest so, once completed, nothing will show up on our client’s record when a potential future employer does a background check.
State v. K.R. decided on August 9, 2017
