Legal Question in Criminal Law in Maryland

Guilt by association
My 16 year old son was with another 16 year old boy who was caught shoplifting an electronic game at Walmart. The boy confessed, returned the undamaged merchandise on the spot, later paid double the price to Walmart, was given community service by the County's Juvenile Justice system. He and my son insist that my son did not know about or help with the theft. My son has a good reputation and has never been in trouble. Juvenile Justice believed them and gave my son no consequences and no record. Walmart contends that my son is guilty of all the actions of shoplifting just by being present and insists that we must pay them double the price of the game. They also banned him from Walmart forever. We feel it would be wrong to pay since he is innocent. We hired a lawyer to advocate for us. Walmart ignores the content of our letters and keeps replying with the same basic threatening form letter to our lawyer. At this point, our lawyer says Walmart isn't following proper legal procedures and says we shouldn't respond to their latest threats. I fear incurring legal fees beyond our budget and possibly ruining our perfect credit rating.

Asked on 4/17/04, 12:28 am

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Re: Guilt by association

Follow your lawyer's advice.

Answered on 4/17/04, 7:33 pm

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