Walk It Through: The Jacket
$1,000 divides petit from grand, an arrest for a crime in the officer's presence, and sealing after seven years.
A college student walks out of a department store wearing a jacket that was never paid for, and an officer standing by the exit sees it.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One jacket and one conviction. Grand larceny, expungement after a dismissal, and the new expungement section are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Class 1 misdemeanorThe highest misdemeanor class, punishable by up to twelve months in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both.
- Grand larcenyLarceny of goods of $1,000 or more, $5 or more from the person, or any firearm, a felony.
- Petit larcenyLarceny of goods under $1,000, or under $5 from the person, a Class 1 misdemeanor. Concealing a store's merchandise intending to take it without paying is petit larceny under $1,000.
- Disorderly conductWith intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, conduct in a public place with a direct tendency to cause violence by the people it is aimed at, or disrupting a funeral, a public meeting, a school or a place of worship.
- SealingClosing the records of an arrest, charge or conviction to the public, except for the purposes the law allows; an agency asked about a sealed record says that no record exists, unless disclosure is permitted.