grand larceny in the third degree help please asap~

Hello, i am a father of a 21 year old son whom have been convicted with the charge of grand larceny in the third degree in the state of NY.

I know this is a little lengthy but i would greatly appreciate any help.
I am very new to this and do not have much knowledge for my son or i have never been in any legal issues until recently.
Let me explain his situation.

He has scammed people through online and stole money. Basically, he said he was selling products that he was not planning on shipping out. The problem is a little complicated.

My son was charged of scamming 2 people for a sum of money totaling over $3000. He was arrested and on the paper he received from court, it says that grand larceny in the third degree is when he steals property and when the value of the property exceeds three thousand dollars. During his court, another call came in about a third person he scammed, for about $1500. This was not written on the paper. So does this mean on his next court date it will come up?

Also, during his court time, the detectives raided his dorm room and flipped through everything and found marijuana, and seized his personal computer along with 2 external hard drives. My son told me they told him to sign a paper letting the detectives go in to his room, and he was not sure if he had to or not but did so because he was very scared. Also, one of the hard drives contained just personal pictures, and the other actually had a couple hundred gigs of movies. I am not sure if they can pin him down for pirating movies but he actually does own hundreds of DVD's and blu-ray movies.

My son and i have gotten a Legal Aid lawyer which is free, and i am not familiar with this. I was told Legal Aid is sometimes better than hiring a lawyer but sometimes not. Only my son has spoken to him so far.

My son has a clean record. He is still attending a college university and is still young with only 21 years of age.

I am wondering if the charges will be increased since the last court because of these new "evidence" they found. And also, would it be more wise to hire a private lawyer. How much fine am i looking at for the charge? How low do you think the charges can be brought down? What is the best way to approach this situation.

I am very new to this whole legal system like i stated before, so if anybody with knowledge can run me through this as best you can, i would greatly appreciate from the bottom of my heart any and all help i can get. My son regrets every little thing about this case and from the way it seems, he has learned a serious life lesson. I told him everyone makes mistakes but just dont do it again.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Also, the Legal Aid lawyer told my son he can be sentenced up to 7 years in prison in a regular case like this but the judge may take him a lot more lightly because the fact he is young, still in school with no occupation, and has a clean record.

He told me he might look at many community service hours and a fine. Is there a way to fight it and maybe lower the fine and add in more community service hours in place because we are not very wealthy and cant afford much right now.

Make sure you or he hires very skilled and competent counsel if the legal aid lawyer is not very dedicated and willing--to try to keep this off the record eventually--jail time is probably not likely if his record is clear now. But having that arrest and/or a conviction on the record will make job-hunting etc. more difficult. Often this could be negotiated down to some kind of court supervision etc. If it eventually appears it cannot be negotiated down, or he (or you) needs to discuss this in more detail with senior counsel to review options etc., please let us know...

just be careful most free attorneys work for the state and do not care much about the person who is being charged. You are very lucky when you get one that does. Hope everything works out for you. You may want to hire an attorney of your own. They have some where you put so much downa and make payments that are very good.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hello, i am a father of a 21 year old son whom have been convicted with the charge of grand larceny in the third degree in the state of NY.

I know this is a little lengthy but i would greatly appreciate any help.
I am very new to this and do not have much knowledge for my son or i have never been in any legal issues until recently.
Let me explain his situation.

He has scammed people through online and stole money. Basically, he said he was selling products that he was not planning on shipping out. The problem is a little complicated.

My son was charged of scamming 2 people for a sum of money totaling over $3000. He was arrested and on the paper he received from court, it says that grand larceny in the third degree is when he steals property and when the value of the property exceeds three thousand dollars. During his court, another call came in about a third person he scammed, for about $1500. This was not written on the paper. So does this mean on his next court date it will come up?

Also, during his court time, the detectives raided his dorm room and flipped through everything and found marijuana, and seized his personal computer along with 2 external hard drives. My son told me they told him to sign a paper letting the detectives go in to his room, and he was not sure if he had to or not but did so because he was very scared. Also, one of the hard drives contained just personal pictures, and the other actually had a couple hundred gigs of movies. I am not sure if they can pin him down for pirating movies but he actually does own hundreds of DVD's and blu-ray movies.

My son and i have gotten a Legal Aid lawyer which is free, and i am not familiar with this. I was told Legal Aid is sometimes better than hiring a lawyer but sometimes not. Only my son has spoken to him so far.

My son has a clean record. He is still attending a college university and is still young with only 21 years of age.

I am wondering if the charges will be increased since the last court because of these new "evidence" they found. And also, would it be more wise to hire a private lawyer. How much fine am i looking at for the charge? How low do you think the charges can be brought down? What is the best way to approach this situation.

I am very new to this whole legal system like i stated before, so if anybody with knowledge can run me through this as best you can, i would greatly appreciate from the bottom of my heart any and all help i can get. My son regrets every little thing about this case and from the way it seems, he has learned a serious life lesson. I told him everyone makes mistakes but just dont do it again.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

Just a word of advice, do not rely on legal aid...they won't work hard for your son's case at all and your son could end up worse than if you hire your own attorney. Legal aid is a joke!! Run and get a good lawyer, you won't regret the cost!