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So this person insisted on me giving him a ride to a nearby CVS and I went ahead with taking him, as being a good samaritan (I thought), and we went in the store. I bought some drinks and while I'm at the self checkout the guy goes behind the counter and grabs some things then proceeds to bag them at the self checkout not paying for them. I didn't condone this but I didn't stop the guy because I didn't know really how to. But I walked out and the dude followed me to my car and again insisted on bringing him to another place to be dropped off. I hesitated but didn't emphasize on denying the guy a ride because i thought it would be easier to just drop him of and be done with it. I dropped him off, and I went to the store where we met and the police were there and they were looking for him. So i told them what happened and where i dropped him off at and after they ran a background check on me they told me to go. Again I didn't steal anything, I pretty much saw that he did but I didn't make a logical decision as I felt uneasy about it. I want to know what I should do to assure my own safety from this mess and not be imprisoned for apparently assisting the guy with theft. Once more, i informed the police what happened and claimed witness to it and to where he was last seen. Should i speak with the CVS store with an attorney or something?

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    If You told the police that you helped the theif what else is there to do ?
    – Heddy
    Sep 10, 2022 at 9:56
  • "assisting the guy with theft." Unfortunately that's exactly what you did and you already confessed. The rest is up to the prosecution. It feels like a minor incident so there is a good chance that they will just let you go. But they could charge you and if you are worried about this, you need to talk to a lawyer.
    – Hilmar
    Sep 10, 2022 at 13:31
  • @Hilmar depends on how they want to spin it, and if OP was under pressure or in danger and never had the intent... They might give a formal deal of no-prosecution for them to be a witness, they might try to bust them too. Anything in between is possible.
    – Trish
    Sep 10, 2022 at 14:46
  • @Trish: that's exactly what I'm saying: the next step is up to the prosecution. The only thing the OP can actually do is to get a lawyer. They may not need one but at this point you don't know.
    – Hilmar
    Sep 10, 2022 at 18:34

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Helping someone leave the scene of a crime

In Lousiana, there's a statute about aiding someone in committing a felony: Accessories after the fact. It dictates:

An accessory after the fact is any person who, after the commission of a felony, shall harbor, conceal, or aid the offender, knowing or having reasonable ground to believe that he has committed the felony, and with the intent that he may avoid or escape from arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment.

The first part is purely fact-based, and the second is the required state of mind. You need both for a conviction. The required intent makes it not a crime if for example a bank robber presses a gun against the taxi driver's head and forces them to get them to the airport.

Theft is a felony in Louisiana, as it can be punished by hard labor, which is meeting the definition of a felony in Louisiana. That is, if one does cross certain bars of value or repeat offenses.

So, for simplicity let's say our felon positively robbed a bank and stole 25001 USD. Now he stops a taxi and tells the driver to get somewhere...

Where is the line between the taxi driver helpfully offering to drive the robber to safety and the robber forcing them at which point the driver no longer has the required state of mind? That is up to the trier of fact to decide.

Now, it can be really important what is done by the taxi driver after the act of assisting. Such behavior can prove the intent or lack thereof. Let's stay with the example of the taxi driver and the bank robber:

  • The taxi driver, once dropping off the robber and being in a somewhat safe distance calls the police to tell them truthfully "Your robber was at [that location] when I dropped him off 2 minutes ago! He was threatening me with a gun!" - He clearly doesn't have the intent of having the robber avoid justice, he actually shows that he wants the robber caught. The driver even is a valuable witness!
  • The taxi driver instead calls the cops and tells them he's at an entirely different place from where he dropped him off. This might be a genuine mistake, though unlikely. More likely it is the intent to have the robber get away, the intent might be proven to a trier of facts.
  • The taxi driver vanishes into the night, and never reports anything. This is quite tricky and might or might not be seen as trying to get the robber to evade justice, but that depends on the circumstances quite a lot more.

So, to reiterate: the question for the prosecution is not just "did the person help the felony" but also "did they have the intent to protect the felon?" If they believe they can satisfy both prongs, then they might press charges. If they have trouble with the intent, then they might want them as a witness against the felon, not as an accessory to the crime.

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