Mountain growing dark down here.

19 year old arrested for theft. It was a prank and I told the officers I stole nothing. I was going to put a neighbors lawn chair in my parking place as a joke, because she had been parking in my space for nearly a week. I met the young lady the day of the incident, so when asked by police did she know me by name she did not match the name to a face. I moved the chair, did not take it off the property I planned on sitting in the chair placed in my parking space as a joke to make others laugh, there was no malice intended.
The owners of the chair did not press charges.

This happened at 2:30am it was dark and there was a fence involved. Some shined a light in my face and asked what I was doing. I kind of laught and said what are you doing? I did not know who the person was and the person admits that he could not id if I was male or female prior to contact. I ran only to find it was a cop who had parked two blocks away. I was on concrete and only had on shorts and a ballcap. So I searched for a safe place this being a grassy area and dove into it to surrender.

Two otheer police Officers came in a car one jumped out jumped on my back and handcuffed me, told me I was under arrest for resisting.

They charged me with theft, resisting and alcohol consumption. Four Officers wrote reports alcohol was not in anyone report except for one officer he had been badgering me about drinking, he did not test me, but charged me.

I have since lost my job with an airline and applied and could be hired by another, but not until this is cleared up. I have been to court twice, I have a public defender as I have no money no job and no home since this arrest.
The public defender did not have time to meet with me and in court did not have time to counsil me.

The court offered me a plea deal drop resisting and theft if I plea to illegal consumption I refused the bargin as i did nothing wrong. I certainly was not drinking.
Any one have advice for me. My landlord I had signed a new lease before being arrested had not moved in, as I have no money now. Landlord wants to sue me or charge me a a subleaser. I found them a person to rent the house but they will not let me off the hook I cannot take responsibility for anyone else.

Go to an older, respected member of the bar with a practice in criminal law (you can go to a library and search for criminal lawyer in your county and state) and explain your situation. Ask him for free advice. Maybe he will help you out pro bono.

Next time, don't run. Don't be a smart-alek.

He didn't know who was on the other side of the fence many people have been beat in this town by strangers and gangs. As soon as he found a safe place to surrender he did.
Thank you for the advice.

The chair thing was suppose to make people laugh, not get him arrested. In his wildest dreams he never considered being arrested.

The case has already been adjudicated. The only reason he needs an attorney now is to appeal--and often times, too little too late if it has been over thirty days ( in my jurisdiction). Once he has pled guilty, he cannot CHANGE his plea. He can, however, appeal the decision based on some constitutional right that was violated, such as due process (just an example--I don't think due process had anything to do with this).

I must have confused you. He did not plead to anything the case has been held over for another pretrial sept 9. Thank you for any advice you may have.

He was appointed a Public Defender. He called for an appointment and was advised he could not make an appointment. They said she would talk with him in court. He went to court and she did not discuss his case or anything with him. Another person offered him a plea deal which he turned down. The Public Defender went to the bench with him and the Judge set a new pre-trial date.

I have done a lot of leg work in this case, I have photo's and responses to the police report. I think my son should ask for a jury trial and let the American people take off work to hear this case. I think they will find my son innocent of malice and wrong doings. He had no weapons and he fully co-operated with Officers after realizing they were Officers.

If an Officer thought my son had been drinking he should have ran a test on him instead of just charging him.

I am able to get the owners of the folding lawn chair to come to court and deny that he stole the chair.

The fact that the police officer could not identify his suspect as male or female, due to poor lighting. How can anyone identify an officer? In his report he said he asked, "what are you doing?" He did not say, "I am a police officer what are you doing." The officer identified two suspects one in blue shorts on in yellow, but said he could not identify *** of suspect. How could my son see him to identify him? When he did realize he found a safe place and surrendered. We don't know who he saw wearing Yellow shorts.

He was taken in the front seat of a squad car to the county. This officer and two others did not make any mention of alcohol in their reports.

So no lawn chair was stolen, it was a joke.
Officers did not ID themselves, before he began to run. He could not see them.
If they thought he had consumed alcohol, why didn't they test him and put it to bed?
I think what these officers and our officials are doing to our children is criminal.

I think they just write up as many charges as possible in hopes that something will stick. they are ruining Good people in the name of Money.JMOO!

This is the Officers report.. On 5/22 at approx 2:48am I was patrollingthe area of xxx in full uniform and a marked patroll car when I noticed and individual attemptempting to jump over a fence behid xxx to enter property at xxx. XXX is a Sorority House and the fence the subject was jumping separated the house from XXX, which is a multi unit apartment building. When I intially saw the individual, I noticed the he(at this point I was unsure weather(sp) it was male or female)must have seen me because he then dropped back down off the fence back onto the XXX side of the fence.

Due to this I drove my patrol car around to the XXX to attempt to investigate further. When I did this the subject was now crouched down next to the fence on the XXX side. At this time I still could not get a good describtion on the subject but could see that they had on YELLOW shorts. When the subject saw me he turned and ran into an unknown apartment at XXX. Due to this I parked my patrol car a block away and got out on foot to check the area. I advised other officers of my location and of the suspicious activity I had witnessed.

As the other units arrived in the area, I approached the fence from the XXX side. When I got next to the fence and between the two buildings I heard a slight commotion and then a younger white male came around the backside of the sorority house carrying a chair. At this point he was on the XXX side of the fence and I was on the XXX side of the fence. The fence was separating us. I shined my light on the subject and asked, "What are you doing?" He replied by asking, What are you doing?" I told him at this point to stop where he was. He briefly looked around, then threw down the chair and began running southbound through the parking lot behind XXX. I called out over the radio his direction of travel and Sgt Lxxx who had also seen him provided describtion of the subject (white male, no shirt,BLUE shorts, with a white ballcap). Sgt XXX and I took chase on foot and followed the subject south toward XXX Cinamas. At this point the subject had a good lead on us due to the fence we had to run around to the opposite side of the house to begin chasing him. By this time the other units in the area had also began to follow the subject and he was apprehended by officer XXX and officer XXX in the south lot of the XXX cinamas approx two blocks from where the chase began.

At this point Officer XXX and I returned to the scene. I examined the chair that the subject who had now been identified at XXXX had. I noticed thaqt there was a chair identical to it sitting on the poatio at the sority house. I informed officer XXX of this and he informed that XXX had told them that it was a prank and that we should speak to the owners to verify this. according to the suspect she was a member of the soroity.

I will add the other reports but as you can see no mention of alcohol and visibility was poor.

Look at the report carefully---there is, on our local forms, a small box that says "alcohol"? is it checked? do you see such a box?

Also you said, The public defender did not have time to meet with me and in court did not have time to counsil me.

If the case hasn't been heard yet, how did he not have time to talk with you in court?

Check out the public defender you have. If he is new, get your son a lawyer so you don't have a problem like Grace described. It should only take a short court time to see that this case has little merit. Your son made a mistake... in an area where he LIVES, he was outside late at night and claims he feared some boogey man might assault him, so he RAN two blocks.

Good luck. I do think the case will be dismissed if there is no further information added to the case. It is NOT illegal to be outside. It is also NOT illegal to be scared, alone at night. The police were chasing YELLOW shorts and your son had on BLUE shorts. No probable cause- given that he lived there and was sitting in his own parking space.