If you’ve been arrested (detained) for shoplifting and you’ve been issued a summons to appear in court then you need to watch this video. After that make sure you call the Suffolk County criminal defense lawyers a Naiburg, Obedin, and Weissman.
Petty theft typically involves shoplifting, and that’s how we see it the most. So somebody goes into Target or Walmart and they lift something and they get caught once they’ve passed the point of purchase. They are usually stopped by a security guard and they’re brought back into the store, brought back into a back room.
Very often a police officer will be summoned and will write them a summons. That’s technically an arrest, and a lot of my clients misunderstand it. They don’t think that they’ve been arrested, but they actually have been arrested. It’s just that they’ve been told to, they haven’t been summarily brought to court, they’re being told “come back in a month”.
What they should do is hire a lawyer because when they come back to court that’s going to be for an arraignment and again rights attach and you should be represented by counsel.