Recently my brother was arrested in school because he had stolen property.
He is only 15 years old and he is not a trouble maker and we are 100% guaranteed that he did not steal it. Now he is issued to go to court and it seems difficult to win the case so if anyone can help us out please do so, we will greatly appreciate it. It is very important for us to win the case because he is young and since he is innocent we don't want this to go on his record.

Some background on him:
This is his first arrest and he has a clean record.
He has good grades at school.
He is also taking a college course and passing it.
Never got into a fight or anything like that.
He is accused of stealing an ipod but he already has one.

What really happened in detail:
This incident happened during testing when one of the students lost her ipod. The teacher checked my brother’s backpack and his pockets and did not find anything. After checking him, he and his group did a presentation in front of the class. After the presentation the school security and the principal’s assistant entered the classroom to check the students for the stolen ipod. They told the students to empty their backpacks. And when my brother opened his backpack he saw that the ipod was in his backpack. With a very surprised face he looked at the girl sitting next to him and said, “What is this doing in here, what should I do?” The girl said nothing. Once he saw the ipod he called the principal’s assistant so he'll tell her what happened. But instead she told him to shut up. My brother sits in the front row and to gain some time to speak he put the ipod in his pocket. The assistant came and checked his backpack and found nothing. Then she told him to empty his pockets and there was nothing in the right pocket, so she said "we are finished with him". But my brother said "but Ms.", and she said "oh we didn't check the other pocket”. And he didn’t want to show what was in his other pocket he wanted to explain first. But they didn’t give him a chance and just took the ipod and after more than four hours they took him to the police station. He wrote the statement of exactly what happened. And he is sticking to what he wrote on the statement; he has not changed anything. Also the girl next to him and some other students in the classroom are willing to give statements that he was surprised when he found the ipod. And the next day when he asked the students who put it in my backpack they started to blame each other. This happened during testing day thus there were new people in the classroom and he doesn't have friends there to tell who did it. Also they found alcohol in the classroom during the same day and those students with the alcohol could have been the ones who set him up.

IF THERE IS A WAY YOU CAN HELP OR GIVE ANY ADVICE PLEASE DO SO.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!

Sounds like a tough case even though it's only over an ipod... Generally in a case like this the district attorney is willing to work with you a bit since it isn't a violent crime and it is his first offence.

They are going to try to get you to except a minimal charge like misconduct or mischief and just give him a small fine, but as I understand it, you do not want this on his record at all becasue he really didn't do it....

So, what you are going to need to do is hire a lawyer so that he or she can have the opportunity to explain the details to the assistant district attorney.

Your best chance is by yuor attorney saying that there is absolutely no chance of a plea bargin. He didn't take it, and your not excepting any offers....

I really don't know how they are going to handle it.... No court in their right mind will let a case like this go to trial. It's too much of a waste of time over an ipod....

They may let you pay a fine for a violation which isn't really a crime, but more like a traffic ticket....

The class will surely know about who abuses alcohol. I suggest that some background checks are done on the students who drink and where they sat relative to the backpack in which the ipod was dropped. I would request the Police and the authorities to question all the students, especially the ones who drink. They might easily stumble on the truth with systematic investigation.
The child will need Psychiatric care to ensure that an unjust and invalid accusation does not scar his psyche. Even a token fine and compounding of the offence can cause enormous damage to his mental health.

Excellent points which I did not consider and they are very important... I was looking at it from a legal standpoint, but your are right!

His personal feelings towards the situation itself are of extreame importance and this shoudl be stressed aswell....

Thank you for your encoragement. May I suggest that the Principal, teachers and parents of this School consider use of the Reggio-Emilia method of running their institution? I am sure that it will reduce alcohol abuse in the School and reduce occurence of threats to children from thewir peers.

To: clasione The “Fifth” Juror and drsbanerji

Thank you for all your help and advices. You both made a lot of things clear for us. Thank you for taking your time and putting a lot of thought into what you said. You truly are a great help at this moment for our family because this is the first time we are in a situation like this and we don’t know what to do. Thanks again.

Also I think that it’s true and this incident will have damage to his mental health. These past two weeks he feels down and weak and just wants to sleep and not really do anything. And he also gets headaches. He feels real bad about what happened and it’s just so sad because he is still confused and doesn’t know what to do. His only hope was having a parent conference in the school but the school doesn’t want to do anything about it and their only advice is just to go to court and deal with it. They don’t want to even pay attentions to the fact that they found alcohol and when I mentioned that they changed the subject. Also when my mother told them that the teacher check and found nothing, they just smirked and said that the teacher is not authorized to do a search. For them the important thing is that my brother was in position of a stolen item. They don’t care about anything else and they don’t even want to look any further. They were even trying to convince my mother that this is a good lesson for him. They don’t see this as a bad thing they just think that it’s a good lesson whether he did it or not. And when my mother asked them “What kind of a lesson is this? Imagine how he will feel if he didn’t do it?” They didn’t respond. And the point that drsbanerji made is right, and we are afraid that this will have a bad consequence on his mental health.

Thank you again.

It is a privilege to serve you, but do not go away or give up. Take a stand and the truth will emerge.
Focus first on the boy. MAKE HIM ARTICULATE HIS FEELINGS. Do not let him keep his thoughts to himself. Encourage him to let out his emotions. This is very important to prevent long term damage. He can write on this site or call me on Skype. I will stay up to speak to him for as long as he wants. It is free and will not cost you anything. My Skype name is drsbanerji and you can set any time you like by an SMS on 00919820188291 or by fixing a time 24 hours in advance on this forum.
Secondly LET HIM KNOW THAT YOU LOVE AND TRUST HIM. He will not be harmed if he knows that you are by his side. The damage will be done, not by the stupid School, but if he feels let down by his family.
Finally, PREPARE A VIGOROUS DEFENSE. Prepare to bring out the truth in Court, even if the School refuses to listen.
Please stay in touch and let us heal these wounds together.

Well, I am thankful that there are people like you in this world. My brother is doing much better now and we are by his side and he knows that we love him and trust him. Your support has really made a difference. Knowing that there are people like you out there who believe and want to help is just amazing. Thank you for willing to speak with him and listen to him but we don’t feel that it is necessary now because he is doing well and we don’t want him to keep on reminiscing about the incident. But thank you anyway and if he ever does want to talk we will let you know. Thank you for all your support and great advices. We will definitely stay in touch.
Take care.

I am filled with joy to read your reply!
May God be with your family and you.

Good luck syuzanna323