Hello, everybody! I have quite a lot of questions concerning law and since these questions are quite specific, it is really hard to find relevant answers on the Internet. So I would like to ask if you know someone or a webpage where I can write a question about legal issues and get answers from actual attorneys or any other persons who know the law. I am just a student, so I cannot afford to pay much, so if you know about someone or a webpage that is for free if it is possible, or at least doesn´t cost much. What I need are answers from U.S. criminal law and jurisdiction (state vs. federal). I would very grateful. Thank you for your suggestions in advance.
Are you asking for advice in the sense of research to make a book authentic, or actual legal advice that you will act on? I suspect that actual attorneys would be incredibly reluctant to give you actual legal advice in this informal way.
Yes. It’s one thing to speak in general terms about law or even to comment on hypotheticals. Advising someone in the manner suggested above would likely create an attorney-client relationship, and attorneys are going to be reluctant to do that under such circumstances.
Well, I am sorry but I don´t really understand what´s the difference. It concerns the story (and certain characters), it is not something I would act on. I suppose it is about authenticity of the story. Perhaps I should give more information and maybe you will be able to help me. The point is my female heroine is a thief and she is going to be arrested. So here are the questions. 1. She is a member of a group of 4 well-coordinated thieves and they committed several thefts together. Will this be considered an organized crime? 2. What conditions must be met if I want her and her "colleagues" to be chased by one federal agent and his colleagues? Will it be enough if they committed thefts in more than one state and perhaps they are seemingly an organized group of thieves? I need to mention they don´t steal candies that cost few cents. I want them to steal things worth 500 000 dollars and more. It´s also important for the plot. 3. If she committed several thefts in several states across the USA (one theft in one state and then they moved to another state where something was worth stealing), what law will be enforced? The federal or state law? I need this information to calculate years she will spend in prison and it is also important for me to know if she will serve her sentence in a federal or state prison. 4. If she committed thefts in several states, can the federal agent (or someone else) choose what theft she will be tried for in the first place? If he does what are the conditions? I would like to choose the first theft she and her "colleagues" committed few years ago. And I suppose it helps when she will be arrested in the same state and possibly also in a city in which she committed the very first theft (well, the very first big theft). 5. She has problems with law since she was a teenager and I want her to spend some time in juvenile correctional facility. Will this be in her criminal record? And will it play some role in calculating her sentence in prison? 6. And my last question. If I can include the federal agent I would like to know if it is possible to make a plot with the heroine getting out of prison and working for the FBI. A rich man would get her out, since he is tired of waiting when the FBI will find his stolen item. She never killed and will never kill anyone, in fact she really hates guns (personal reasons), she has just stolen a lot of things . Stealing is more like a mania for her. If it is possible, what do I need to bear in mind when writing such a plot? Thank you.
It sounds like you could get some of these answers by speaking to local law enforcement. I'm a correctional officer and am familiar with laws, so I can give you a little info, but a police officer would know more if you reach out to them. 1. Yes, I believe this would be organized crime. We have a charge in Texas called "Organized retail theft" and I have personally seen it applied when a group of people worked together to commit theft. 2 & 3- I can't speak for Federal anything. I work at a county level. 4. I don't believe the arresting agency would 'choose' which crime to try her for first. Here is how it works: -When someone has committed multiple crimes across multiple states, there tends to be warrants for their arrest in the system. Here in Texas we use TLETS (Texas Law Enforcement Telecommunications System) to run the arrested person's name, DOB, social, etc. -If they have warrants from other agencies, even out of state, we get a "Hit". -We then request a "hit confirmation"- essentially asking the other agency if their warrant is valid and they want to act on it. Once they send back the hit confirmation, we go ahead and add that charge to whatever they were first arrested for, placing a hold on them in the process. Several times, we have gotten a hit for an out of state charge but the other state often will not extradite unless it is a state that borders them. For example, if we arrest someone in TX, and they have a warrant out of CA, it usually is too far away and CA will tell us that they will not extradite. It usually says that in the initial hit- 'We will extradite in State A, State B, and State C ONLY' or something like that. In that case, we do NOT apply that charge. -The arresting agency will prosecute first, because the arrested individual in their custody. So we hold the arrestee in our facility until they go to court. When they are done with our charges, we notify any and all other agencies that have a hold on them that the arrestee is done with our charges and they can come and pick them up. Local agencies (aka, other counties within the state) have 10 days to come and get them (at least in my county that's the deadline). When they are picked up, all their charges go with them- so, say Jane Doe has charges in Smith, Montgomery, and Travis counties. If Travis County picks Jane Doe up from our facility first, we give them all the paperwork for the Smith and Montgomery charges so that once done in Travis, those counties can have their chance. -Out of state agencies are usually given more time. In Texas, if another state has a warrant for them and wants to extradite, the charge is listed as "Fugitive From Justice- Out of State", no matter what the original charge might be. And they have to have an extradition hearing first. Unfortunately, that part is not in my job description, so I can't tell you what goes on at those hearings. 5. Can you reach out to a nearby juvenile facility to get the answer to that question? 6. I don't know anything about the Feds and how they work.
That´s the point - I really can´t because I am not from the USA. So I depend on the answers I can get. And unfortunately the information I can get from the Internet is not enough. Trust me I tried to look up everything on the Internet but was unsuccessful. That´s why I created this thread. Thank you for the information. Do you know, by any chance, someone who has information about how federals work? And since you are from Texas, could I write you about another story I have?
1). Aside from the aforementioned organized retail theft, some sort of criminal conspiracy charges might be on the table. And depending on how they're handling the profits of their crimes, things like money laundering could be involved as well. 2). If you want a federal agency on the case, then she needs to commit a federal crime. Crime in multiple states could be enough, especially if it's obvious the same group is behind the crimes. But since you want a high dollar score in the first place, along with federal attention, I'll point out that art theft from a museum is a federal crime. 3). As far as I know, every state involved would get a crack at her, plus the federal government if federal crimes had been committed. To cite a recent real world example, the FBI recently rescued an abducted North Carolina girl in Oklahoma. The guy who did this is going to be facing: -charges in North Carolina for the abduction -federal kidnapping charges -sex crimes charges in Oklahoma 4). Stormsong covered this one pretty well. 5). Depends on the state. https://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/expunging-or-sealing-a-juvenile-court-record.htm If those "problems with the law" weren't expunged, I'd imagine they'd come up again and be a factor in sentencing. 6). Deals with the government aren't uncommon, but that's a pretty different matter from some rich guy getting her out. Which one are you going for?
Sorry for not answering, I´ve been rather busy. 2. Well, I was thinking about them specializing on thefts from museums or galleries. Their last theft will be about stealing a gem or something like that from a gallery. 3. You know, I would like to include some scenes, in which the federal agent will tell his subordinates to go through another unsolved thefts committed before and since they will have DNA of the heroine, they will be able to possibly connect her with another thefts. I also think that the very first big theft committed in North Carolina (in which some part of the story is set including their last theft) would be perfect because of the fact they had enough time to figure out how the heroine and her "colleagues" did it and to gather as much evidence as they can. And since that was their first theft and they were just beginning their "career", the federal agents were able to get quite a lot of traces - DNA samples, fingerprints. To sum up - I think this would be good in order to get her out of streets so she cannot commit another theft, the trial can start basically almost immediately, and this is also a "sure thing", so to speak. 6. Hm, quite the both of them. The rich guy (who knows people who know people, you know) would get the heroine out of prison. The deal will be that if she finds what someone stole from the rich guy, the FBI will clear out her criminal record and in fact she will be free. But if she violates the deal by committing even a misdemeanor, not to mention more thefts or even cooperating with any wanted criminal, she will be sent to prison, tried and she will serve her sentence. But I am not saying the hero or his superiors will like this deal, mainly the first part. But I would like to include one scene with the hero and the antagonist at the end of the story, in which the hero would tell the antagonist about another solution to his problems - to make a deal with the FBI and work for them in exchange for reducing his and his sister´s sentence, and they can possibly earn their freedom in the future. If the antagonist had done this at the beginning, he wouldn´t have had to kill someone. Although the antagonist will be doomed, there is still hope for his sister. I would like to include something like this - the antagonist would have to find a federal agent who would be willing to cooperate with a criminal and you know it´s quite risky, but if he would be successful, he and his sister could possibly be free in the future. I hope you know what I mean.
