Lisa Pelosi: I think a lot of times, if it doesn’t invite the law of violence, they think that it’s not serious but in fact, it is serious and often times, with these types of cases, a detective will call the client and say, you know, “Hey, can you come in and talk to me? We’ve got a situation that we need to discuss with you.” As with any time a detective calls you, you should immediately contact an attorney who is knowledgeable in these areas and expert in criminal law and have the attorney call the detective back and find out what’s going on and you should never make a statement to the detective.
It Is Detrimental to Volunteer to Return Stolen Property without an Attorney Representing You
It also doesn’t get rid of the crime against you if you say, “Oh, you know, I did take that item”, or, “I did take that money but let me just give it back to you”, that doesn’t help the situation and you still would be charged with the crime even if you voluntarily give back the property. In fact, by volunteering to give back the property without an attorney representing, you can actually hurt yourself rather than help yourself.
Common Client Mistakes Detrimental to a Favorable Outcome in a Theft Case
Interviewer: What mistakes people make to make their cases worse; do you think they often talk too much sometimes, do you think people have this kind of notion that if they admit to something or if they tell the truth that they’re going to be forgiven somehow?
Lisa Pelosi: I think people make that mistake many times in notion that if they say they’re sorry and that they’ll give the property back, that it will all go away. It can help if a lawyer speaks with the prosecutor and explains certain facts to the prosecutor, it can work to the advantage of the client to have an attorney broke a situation where a client wants to return money or a property. But if they do that without an attorney, it really and truly, in my opinion, will only lead to them being having more evidence against them rather than the same fact having with an attorney dealing with the prosecutor where rather it becoming evidence against them, that becomes a mitigating factor in their favor.
It Is Never Advisable To Sign a Civil Demand Letter in the Absence of an Attorney
Interviewer: A civil demand letter, if I am asked to sign that, is that a good idea?
Lisa Pelosi: Usually, clients who are arrested for shoplifting or civil demand letters, either they sign it before they’ve called me and then, I deal with that issue but I would recommend never sign it because it’s an admission of guilt to a lower standard but it’s still an admission of guilt and I always advise a client not to pay that money until and let me, as their attorney, deal with the civil aspect of it because a) it can hurt the criminal case, and b) you can negotiate that down to nothing. And if you get your case dismissed, there’s no reason to pay any civil money to the department store, for example.
It Is Helpful to Approach the Prosecutor and Try to Mitigate the Circumstances
Interviewer: What is going to help someone? We’ve talked about civil demand letter and we talked about giving too much information but if you’re working with a client, what would you advise them to do I mean what is going to help them during their case?
Lisa Pelosi: I think what would help them is to try to approach the prosecutor – this is of course for non-violent case – and say this person, if it’s accurate, has no criminal record and we really would like to do anything possible to keep his or her record clean and maybe suggest to the prosecutor a restitution and the amount that may have been taken plus some community service and maybe a program so that they can better understand why it occurred and therefore, keeping the clients record clear which is really important for their future.
