Left a food shopping store in New York with an unpaid cart that had store bags with merchandise in it,caught, arrested and gave date and time to appear in court.Have good lawyer but told wife it's a missunderstanding, will the food chain rep come to court with video survalence to prove I stole , told lawyer and wife I did't actually steal, store said I had some merchandise on the bags and was trying to steal them when I left the front of the store. Point is do stores come to these "hearings" or you, your lawer and DA just work it out with the judge? $ amount was only 120.00

They might, they might not. I suspect they will.
Since you have a good lawyer, why not let him or her handle settling out of court?
As for the proverbial misunderstanding, I suppose someone can load up some store bags (cloth ones you brought from home maybe?) and wander right past checkout... not very believable, and maybe the video would show just how furtive or absent minded you were.
$120 isn't the point. The stores go to court to make it clear that they crack down on shoplifting.

You were caught outside the store with unpaid merchandise, correct? Why would they need to show video surveillance?

Generally something like this doesn't go to court. The DA offers a plea bargain to avoid the expense of a trial. With a first offense you will probably be offered probation.

If it does come to a trial, then the DA just needs to provide proof that you left the store with unpaid merchandise. This could be video surveillance or the testimony of whoever caught you. And yes, if it does come to trial, the store will send someone.

Adding to my question about leaving food store with cart, if I go to court and plead not guilty would then the store rep bring like a tape form store security and say yes you did, here it is on tape or things don't play like that? Not sure what to think.

First, to add to your thread, please use the Answer options, don't Ask a new question. I've merged your thread for you.

Again, I don't know how necessary a tape would be or even if one exists. How were you caught?

At your first appearance, if you have not plead yet, the other side will not normally appear, you will be asked to enter a plea. Normally this is not guility unless a plea agreement is already reached. You should always tell your attorney the truth, he can not give you proper advice if he does not know the truth. He will still work to get you off but if you lie to him, you could cause him to enter evidence that is not true.

If this actually goes to trial, they will have the person who stopped you, to testify, they will have the video evidence and perhaps the manager you talked to , that will say what you told them.

So yes, if this goes to full trial, all of the evidence will be shown

Thanks, feel better now. I just want to go, plead not guilty and gt something like probation and put this all behind me. Just nerverous since this is my first offense,thought someone from the store would go and test against me right then. Never done anything like this and very scared.

What will happen, is you plead not guilty at your arraignment, and then the DA will either schedule a trial date or offer your attorney a deal. The better your attorney, the better deal he may work out for you.

P.S. Again, please use the Answer options at the bottom of the page for followups.

Does the DA or judge get like a transcript of what was disscued at the time when you are brought in the office of the store where the petty larceny happened? Can't remember what I said orig. when things happened

Again, please use this site properly. I've merged yet another thread that you started. We want to help you and having all your posts on an issue in the same thread helps us do that. If you want to add to the thread scroll down and use the Answer box.

If the store made a record of what you said when you were stopped and held, then its likely that record was turned over to the police who will turn it over to the DA. It will then be entered as evidence if there is a trial.

I just didn't want to go to my hearing and plead not guilty and have them say " oh right here from security they say you said sorry , didn't mean it , will never do it again, was desperite" etc. Just want to know if I tell lawer I didn't mean to do it I don' want some kind of paper saying I did. I can't come too clean, lawer is a very good friend and good lawyer and with this being my first offence I think this won't go to trial and hope to get just probation, am I thinking the impossible??

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Originally Posted by owenryan2

I just didn't want to go to my hearing and plead not guilty and have them say " oh right here from security they say you said sorry , didn't mean it , will never do it again, was desperite" etc. Just want to know if I tell lawer I didn't mean to do it I don' want some kind of paper saying I did. I can't come too clean, lawer is a very good friend and good lawyer and with this being my first offence I think this won't go to trial and hope to get just probation, am I thinking the impossable????

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First, that's not how the process works. The first step is you get arrested. The next step is you get arraigned. At your arraignment you plead guilty or not guilty. If you plead not guilty then a trial is scheduled. Before that trial, the DA will probably offer a plea bargain where you plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for probation and no jail time. What you will be offered depends on the local prosecutor.

If it does go to trial do not worry about pleading not guilty though they have an admission of guilt from the store. I really doubt if this will ever go to trial. But you need to be totally honest with your attorney. You need to tell him as much as you recall about what you said when they stopped you. It can't have any surprises going into talks with the DA or a trial.