Skilled Denver Shoplifting Defense Legal Counsel

At Trial Lawyers & Legal Services of Colorado, LLC, we have dedicated the majority of our practice to defending people in criminal proceedings to ensure that they receive a just and fair trial that is free of government misconduct in violation of their due process rights. Our clients can benefit from our personalized and results-driven approach to criminal defense advocacy, and so can you. We are dedicated to giving your case the necessary attention and focus, ensuring that your interests are properly served.

Shoplifting Laws in Colorado

According to Colorado’s revised statutes section 18-4-406, it is a crime to willfully concealing goods, wares, or other merchandise that was not paid for within a mercantile establishment. Doing so is considered prima facie or intent to commit theft.

Colorado’s revised statutes section 18-4-401 states it is a crime to steal another person’s property, receive stolen goods, or receiving money which is stolen.

To successfully convict someone of shoplifting, the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that these elements are satisfied:

• The defendant,
• In the State of Colorado, on the date and place charged,
• Knowingly,
• Took control of another person’s valuables,
• Without authorization (or through the use of threats or deceit), and
• Received or disposed of such valuables, and
• Used, concealed, or abandoned them,
• With the intent of permanently depriving the other person of its use or benefit.

Furthermore, section 18-4-407 grants immunity to store owners and their employees from liability for questioning someone they reasonably suspect has shoplifted from their store:

• “If any person triggers an alarm or a theft detection device…or conceals upon his person or otherwise carries away any unpurchased goods…or merchandise held or owned by any store or mercantile establishment, the merchant or any employee thereof…acting in good faith and upon probable cause based upon reasonable grounds therefore, may detain and question such person, in a reasonable manner for the purpose of ascertaining whether the person is guilty of theft. Such questioning…does not render the merchant, [or] merchant’s employee…civilly or criminally liable for slander, false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, or unlawful detention.”