Attorney Tiffany DeBruin’s client is a 31-year-old mother of 5 children who was originally charged with Possession of Methamphetamines (a felony with a possible prison sentence of 10 years) and a retail fraud 2nd degree ( a misdemeanor with possible incarceration of up to 1 year). This occurred just before the pandemic and there was a co-defendant in the case charged with the same thing.
After the client was in the store, a loss prevention officer approached her and there were items found in her bag that were not necessarily paid for; however, she gave consent to search her vehicle and methamphetamines were found in a bag under some of the items that had not been paid for. There were some questions about who the drugs belonged to and there were concerns about statements the co-defendant said voluntarily about her own use and history of drug abuse.
We scheduled the case for a preliminary examination. Attorney DeBruin spoke with the prosecutor about the weaknesses of the case and at the time of the preliminary examination, the prosecutor was willing to take it down to a use of controlled substance (a 1-year misdemeanor) and retail fraud 3rd degree (a 93 day misdemeanor).
The outcome of an individual case depends on a variety of factors unique to that case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any similar or future case.