Citizens Project

For my Citizens project, I was going to go to the Fairfax County General District court and observe some cases. I remembered however, that a friend of mine had to go to court for a mistake he committed so I followed him to his case instead at the Loudoun County General District Court. Earlier this year, my best friend’s brother committed a crime at his job. He worked at Old Navy and stole over $1,600 in 6 days from them. He did not take money out of the register, but it is difficult to understand the method he stole the money. I know it had to do with gift cards but the rest is sort of a blur. Needless to say, my friend got caught and was arrested.

All of this happened before the school year started. I went to the initial hearing with my friend and his family for moral support. The day of the hearing, we sat outside the courtroom and waited as other cases were being reviewed. When it was time for my friend, we all went into the courtroom. The people that made up the courtroom were the judge, the arresting officer, the bailiff, and the court reporter. The only other people in the room that did not make up the body of the court were people observing the case and the family and I. The session started with the judge mentioning the case which was The Commonwealth of Virginia v. Kevin Anibal Santiago Morales. The judge mentioned what the charge was which was embezzlement. He asked Kevin if he understood the charges that were being brought against him and that he faced possible jail time because it was a Class U Felony because he stole over $200. The judge then proceeded to ask Kevin if he could afford a lawyer which Kevin replied that he could not. A lawyer was appointed to Kevin at his discretion and Kevin was to meet with him. That was the end of the trial hearing. It was not until months later when Kevin actually had to go to court for the preliminary trial where he was going to plead guilty. By this time, the citizen’s project had already been assigned and therefore I decided to go with Kevin again to his preliminary trial. Kevin had told me beforehand that his attorney was going to offer a plea bargain with the representative of Virginia in exchange for a less severe punishment. When we arrived at court, his attorney went into a meeting room right outside the courtroom to discuss his plea deal with the prosecutors, while the rest of us stayed outside the courtroom. According to what the attorney told us afterwards, he told the prosecutors that it was Kevin was a good person and that it was the first time he ever committed a crime. He told him that Kevin was ready to start fresh and that it was shown by Kevin paying the entire restitution back before the trial date. Because he had paid the entire restitution back, the attorney asked the prosecutors to lower the charges from a felony, to a misdemeanor so he could avoid a lengthy jail sentence.