[LatteLazy]

Bear in mind:

If you can reasonably prove it wasn't you, you can likely go home within a day or two.

If you can't, you get to personally spend a fortune on a lawyer and wait in jail and attend court for 6months to ultimately be vindicated but bankrupt and unemployed...

[withinboredom]

My father-in-law picked up his wife’s medication (narcotics) the day after she died from cancer. Just going through the motions… arrested and charged with fraud.

He’s still waiting on his court date, nearly four years later. Thank god he was allowed to post bail, go to his wife’s funeral, and live his life while he waits. His daughter who was in the car was also charged just for being in the car (she had no idea what was going on), and denied bail. She wasn’t allowed to come to the funeral.

There were several points at which someone could have said “dude, I’m really sorry, but you know your wife passed away yesterday?” Not a single person did that in that small town.

I guess the point is, even if you can prove it was someone else, or that you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, you can spend years in jail just waiting to tell a judge.

[tcmart14]

Wow, sorry to hear that about your father in law. It might not have even been a case of going through motions, but it could be a coping mechanism also. When people suffer a big loss, it can cause people to do weird things or actions without much thought. An example is, there is a grave site of a little boy who passed and his father had him buried with a sort of sun roof thing where light could get inside. His explanation was that his son was afraid of the dark. Before I was a parent, I would probably think, wow that is weird. Now that I am a parent, I think about that and go, "if I lost my 6 year old right now, there is no telling what I would do, that would probably be me."

Your last point. That is definitely an issue. Even if innocent, all the motions of waiting to go to trail can wreck someone's life. Try explaining to an employer I've got an upcoming court date for murder or theft and I swear I am innocent. So can you pretty please keep me employed while I wait 3 years for my trial?