No one is perfect; we all make mistakes. If we are lucky, we get the chance to learn from the mistake and correct it. Unfortunately, when the mistake is actually a criminal offense, we don’t always get the opportunity to make amends without also facing some severe penalties.
This is not to say it’s impossible. In fact, if you are accused of a crime like fraud, you can work with a criminal defense attorney to confront the charges against you and get back on your feet while also avoiding criminal convictions and harsh sentences.
For instance, a civil rights leader was charged with fraud after he wrote a bad check to a consultant helping him plan a political event supporting President Obama. This mistake has evidently taken center stage, despite a lengthy and impressive history of community leadership and civil rights efforts.
Since writing the check years ago, the man has been avoiding the U.S. and his legal and financial problems that continued to build up. He was at risk of losing his home and was named as a fugitive during the time he lived outside of the country.
However, his family was eventually able to convince him to come back home and confront the situation. Once he did that, he started repaying the debt. While he did spend a short amount of time in jail, he eventually repaid the $20,000 the courts had ordered him to pay. After fulfilling this requirement, the courts agreed to then drop the bad-check charge. The 83-year-old man can now move past the discrepancy and continue his work helping the needy across the world.
Criminal allegations including fraud won’t just go away on their own, and dealing with them sooner than later is generally in your best interests.
This case illustrates what can happen when you deal with your situation and stop running away from it, and how much you stand to benefit from working with an attorney to negotiate alternatives to penalties like incarceration. With legal support, a careful response to court orders and efforts to correct your mistake, you can work to minimize the consequences you could be facing for a criminal offense.