What can I do if I was accused and arrested of stealing a vehicle? 45 Answers as of December 19, 2011

Usually the crime is Operating Vehicle Without Owner's Consent. Elements are that 1) you drove or operated(manipulated controls) a 2)motor vehicle, and 3) owner did not consent. If you can refute those elements with evidence showing you reasonably believed you had owners consent case will not be provable for prosecution. Get a lawyer ASAP. If you thought someone was lawful owner and they were not, you still did not knowingly operate, but that is a grayer area and a prosecutor may try to establish that a reasonable person "should have known" the true owner did not consent.

If what you say is true, and the officers determine that the vehicle was not stolen, then you have nothing to worry about. Perhaps this is why you were released and why no charges have been filed.

You can fight the charges. That's what our Court system is for. Hire a criminal defense lawyer. If the prosecutors don't dismiss the charges, consider setting the case for a trial. Of course, you should have your lawyer look over everything and consider all your options.

Have you been indicted yet? If not, a good attorney may be able to convince the prosecutor that the charge should be dropped if it can be shown that the car was not stolen.

If you are arrested and released without being handed a paper as a citation or with a notice to appear in court on a certain date you have not been charged. If you have been charged you need an attorney now and you cannot talk about the case with anyone without your attorney with you. Your attorney can review the facts with you and evaluate the evidence the state has against you. At that point he can advise you on how to proceed.

Your case requires handling by an attorney. The attorney will review whatever paperwork you have (charges, bond slips, etc.) The police reports will ultimately be reviewed. The vehicle will be tracked pursuant to its Vehicle Identification Number. The facts can then be established.

Quite simply, you should contact and hire an experienced criminal defense lawyer. The charges you are facing are very serious and carry with them a significant amount of potential jail time. A lawyer will be able to present your case in the best possible light as well as work with the State's Attorney's Office to get you the best possible deal, if you choose to go that way. Whatever you do, you should have a lawyer working with you to make sure you come out of this with the least consequences possible.

Assuming there are no extenuating circumstances or behavior of the police you have not mentioned, the police are allowed to make mistakes. The legal system gives them a great deal of leeway in which to do their jobs. As long as their belief the car was stolen was reasonable (and this can be defined broadly), they will likely be found to have acted properly in arresting you. The law will likely view your arrest as a necessary inconvenience. The fact you were not prosecuted will be held to demonstrate a lack of harm to you. There is not much you can do other than walk away.

Obtain information from owner of vehicle and have them prove you had permission to be using vehicle.

It appears that you have not been charged with any offense in which case there is nothing for you to do in that regard unless you have information that you believe indicates you will be charged in the future. If that is the case you simply need to hire a lawyer and work from there.

If you are accused and not charged, at this point you can not help your case by talking. Hire an attorney. If you get re-arrested, tell the police you do not want to talk unless you have an attorney present. Make sure they understand you want an attorney, not just to remain silent (they are two separate rights with two separate requirements for the police). And don't talk to the police, regardless of what they say. At this point you can only harm yourself by "explaining."

In this type of situation, your best option is to retain an attorney as soon as possible and get them working for you while evidence is still fresh.

You should contact and retain an experienced criminal defense attorney to assit you in this matter. If the car was not stolen, and you were using it with permission, you should not be charged. If you are charged, it would appear you have a valid defense.

If you are innocent it will be easy for your attorney to prove that and the case will be dismissed. The owner will say that you had permission to drive the vehicle and you will not have to plead guilty or go to trial.

If the car was never stolen, if it was legitimately "borrowed" or used with the owners consent, you will not be charged (or shouldn't be). The car doesn't have to be reported as stolen for a vehicle theft to occur. Say, for example, a car is stolen from a parking lot while the owner is shopping at the mall; the police stop the car with the thieves inside before the owner even knows it has been taken. That's a vehicle theft and the car wasn't rotted stolen. It would be interesting to know just why the police thought the car was stolen, what information they had, and why they arrested you. If they had no probable cause the arrest was unlawful. My guess is that there are some missing facts in you scenario. Fortunately, you were released, but that doesn't account for the fact that you were arrested.

The prosecutor must prove the car was stolen. Therefore, if not stolen then your lawyer may win this felony case at the preliminary hearing stage on the basis that the police lacked probably cause to arrest you. If somebody lied to the police about the car being stolen, then you must prove that fact (that it really was not stolen) at trial.

You are facing serious charges. I recommend retaining an attorney to investigate and verify the validity of your possession of the car before communicating further with law enforcement.

I would recommend that you go to the arresting agency and fill out a form request for expungement of the arrest record.

Are you being charged with a crime? If not, then there's nothing for you to do other than possibly hiring a lawyer to be proactive and to be ready "if" you are charged. But if you were merely accused and later the police concluded you had not in fact committed a crime, then there is not much else for you to do.

You don't need to do anything until, and if, you are charged with a crime.

The best thing you can do is find a criminal defense attorney. Although it sounds like you have not currently been charged, you need to have an attorney on your side. These are serious accusations, and despite the fact that you are innocent of the charges the State will be pushing hard for a conviction.

It is doubtful that the DA will charge this case once they check and see that it wasnot listed as stolen. As for what you can do, you can do nothing. No one is going to sue the cops for damages for busting you. Not enough money in it.

Whether it has been reported as stolen isn't the issue. If it had been stolen and the owner was unaware of the fact, it would still be a stolen vehicle. If you knew or had reason to know it was stolen, that's all that matters. As long as you make sure the cops and court have your address and phone number, you can wait and see if you're charged but arrest and release in and of themselves have nothing necessarily to do with the validity of charges.

You need to retain an attorney to fight your case. The State must prove that you did not have permission to use the vehicle in order to get a conviction for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Whether or not a car was reported stolen is irrelevant. What matters is whether or not he owner gave you permission to have the car. If you were simply a passenger in the car, then it will be even more difficult for the state to prove its case.

You need to get the arrest expunged.

You can have a lawyer explain it to them. If that doesn't work you can go to trial.

If the officers were acting under color of law, meaning that they had reason to believe they had probable cause to arrest and that they were acting within the course of their duties as a police officer, they have immunity. If they were just arresting you because they thought you were in a car you couldn't afford, or something of that nature, you may have a suit for wrongful arrest. You may not be entitled to very high damages. You should talk to a civil attorney.

If you were released and not charged, there is nothing to do. If you feel the police arrested you in bad faith you should contact a civil rights attorney.

If the car wasn't stolen you likely won't be charged. Possibly with a lesser charge of tampering with a vehicle with but only as a misdemeanor.

If you are innocent, you can file a petition for factual innocence. If granted, that will seal, then destroy the record of your arrest and remove it from your background. Or - you can just consider yourself lucky that nothing ever happened and no charges were filed.

If the police department gave you a court date, you must report to the courthouse at the specified date and time. The first court hearing is called an arraignment. This is your opportunity to either plead guilty or not guilty. If you hire an attorney, one will appear for you in lieu of your personal presence at every hearing.

If the car was not stolen or reported stolen you cannot be charged with stealing a vehicle.

If you are facing serious charges like this, you need to get an attorney right away to help try and get things cleared up. Don't wait. The longer the charges remain, the more determined the prosecutors will get to make them stick!

The owner must have told the police it was stolen.

You are fooling yourself. Police are not arresting folks for theft, without proof that the vehicle was stolen. You need to locate an attorney to educate you.