hey all,

so basically the story goes like this:

in april of 2006, i was arrested for theft under $5000 for car prowling in a neighborhood and some alleyways. i was 17 at the time. we got caught with $1500 worth of golf clubs in the back of my dads car. needless to say, my dad was pissed. luckily though, he hired a good lawyer, and i pretty much just had to do 20 hours of community service and write a letter of appolgy to my parents. also my criminal record was destroyed, this happened about nov 2006. so at this point, boom, im clean.

STUPID ME, its feb 2007, i am now 18 and i do the same thing again. car prowling, arrested for theft under $5000 again. the way we got arrested was that the cops actualyl caught us red-handed in a car looking through it. in the end they charged me with steeling car tires with rims which we put in a park nearby so we could get them in the morning.. some cheque book and thats about all that was stolen. i also got a $115 ticket for car prowling... yea im not happy about it, i feel like a total scum of the earth. i know this. i cant really explain why i did it... i guess the only reason i can come up with is that me and my friend were drinkin heavily that night and.. well i guess i kinda have been a lot lately cuz my parents have been fighting a lot and its kinda hard to stay home sometimes.

anyways, this time things are different... my dad mentioned to me after the first time that if i do something stupid again, "im f'n out". out of the house he means... so i pretty much cant really tell him or my mom about it cuz i really have no where to go if i get kicked out.. and they will do it my parents are kinda crazy but anyways... i tottally dont know what to do... i cannot afford a lawyer, i only make like $1200 a month.. and i already know that my previous lawyer was like $2000+ so im screwed for that... i think my only option at this point is to get free legal advice.

i recently talked to Calgary Legal Guidance (on 02/20/07), which is a not-for-profit org. and the volunteer lawyer there told me that they will give me a call in about a week.. so right now i am waiting for that phone call.

i explained everything to him when i went to see and he pretty much told me i have very little of a defence, since they did catch us in the act and he said that what most likely is going to happen is that i will either be fined or do community service (which kinda sounds weird to me since i already did it and i dont see why a judge would make me do it again...). he also said that jail time "probably wont happen". this is where it kinda sunk in for me.. i really REALLY dont wanna goto jail, i dont care if its for 30 days i really cannot have that happen to me. not only will that cause a lot of heartache for me and my family, but it will probably shatter me for the rest of my life.

i really dont care about any fine or community service ill pay off $10,000 if i have to.. ill work 1000 hours community service if i have to, i just dont wanna goto jail and i dont want my parents to find out...

theres really a lot more to the situation but i know this is getting kinda long so im gonna leave it at that. i hope someon can help me out there!

thanks to all//

ps. i live in alberta, canada


D.

CaptainForest

Dude, you screwed up. Admit that.

You want to stay out of jail? Then you need to show the Judge you are sorry for what you did and are taking responsibility for it.

How can you take responsibility for it when you won’t even tell your parents?

Odds are a first offence like this you will just get probation and community service.

rachel101

Well I've always heard Canadian sentences are a lot lighter than California sentences but I think courts are the same everywhere. I totally agree w/Captain Forest. Take responsibility. You may want to consider writing the judge, (I assuming you will be sentenced by judge, not jury) a letter and just be honest. There's turmoil at home and you often don't want to be there and you did an unbelievably drunk stupid thing and throw yourself on the mercy of the court.

If you have to do time so be it....you know you messed up and you will probably have to do this with a court appointed atty.

Good luck. I hope it works out for you. If your parents do find out and toss you out you will get along. Maybe it won't be fun but you will survive and sounds like you may be the type who really needs to get knocked hard to get it. When your family helped you out of it the first time you apparently didn't learn much.

But in the meantime have you thought about finding a new group of friends or are you the leader of the group and they are following you?