Shoplifting is often a crime of moral turpitude (CIMT). If it is, it can increase the consequences of a conviction. It can impact a non-citizen’s immigration status. In some contexts, however, shoplifting is not serious enough to count as a CIMT. Such petty offenses are exempted from crimes of moral turpitude. Serious shoplifting cases can affect …
If you use counterfeit money to pay for up to nine hundred fifty dollars ($950) worth of merchandise at a California store, you are guilty of shoplifting under PC 459.5, California’s shoplifting law–and not of a more serious crime like PC 459 burglary. Penal Code 459.5 PC, California’s new shoplifting law, was created by Proposition 47. This …
Individuals suspected of shoplifting in California are being detained by private security guards and forced to sign confessions and pay hundreds of dollars to a private company for an unauthorized “diversion” program. Those are the allegations contained in a lawsuit filed by the San Francisco city attorney in November 2015 against a company called CEC. The …
It is not an uncommon scenario. A defendant leaves a department store with a few unpaid items. They are stopped and detained by store security. While waiting for the police to arrive, security asks them a laundry list of questions. Should this defendant be given a Miranda warning before they are questioned? There is a …
