March 14, 2012
- Steven Topazio wrote this April 27, 2014 at 2:34 pm
The client, a 30 year old Computer Software Engineer, was arrested for Shoplifting and Threats, hired Attorney Steven J. Topazio to defend him. According to the police report, the Client stole a bag of shrimp from a local grocery store then made statements allegedly threatening the store security when he was stopped. Attorney Topazio met with his client and learned that he went through the self check-out line and actually purchased other items. Attorney Topazio caused his client to obtain copies of his bank records showing the transaction. Attorney Topazio met with the Assistant District Attorney and argued that merchants who create self-checkout lines for their customers should assist them with these transactions when a problem is detected in lieu of having them arrested. Attorney Topazio was able to persuade the Assistant District Attorney to recommend giving his Client pre-trial probation as a method of resolving the case. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, section 87 allows for the court to place a defendant on probation without admitting to sufficient facts and if that defendant is able to complete probation and abide by all the terms, the defendant is rewarded by having his case dismissed. Today, Attorney Topazio was able to convince the Court to adopt the joint recommendation of 3 months unsupervised pre-trial probation.