If you were falsely accused of a crime how would you handle it?

Australia
March 14, 2011 2:28am CST
I'm a married mother of two and last year I was suspended from my job of 18 months and accused of stealing money from the organisation. The police were called in and I was arrested at 34 weeks pregnant with my second child. I'm accused of stealing quite a large sum of money, and am now waiting for my court date. I believe someone within the organisation used me to take the fall for their thievery, but how can I possibly prove it? And why would anyone believe me, "I've been set up" is such a cliche. The police are quite happy to blame me, the investigating officer believed me to be guilty before he had even talked to me. My husband and I work hard to pay our bills and put food on our table. We have no savings and are thousands of dollars in debt. I spend most nights struggling to sleep, my hair is falling out and I have trouble stopping myself from crying every day. It's been six months since I was arrested and I won't see the inside of a courtroom for at least another few months. My husband can't stop working, we simply can't afford it, so I will have to send my kids off to relations to live if I do have to go to prison. How would you deal with the stress? How would you make decisions about what would happen if you had to go to prison? Do you think there's any chance of me not being punished for this crime? Do you think my family and I will ever recover from this?
1 response
hardworkinggurl
@hardworkinggurl (37063)
• United States
14 Mar 11
Welcome to myLot. Gosh I am really sorry to hear this, I truly am and it breaks my heart to hear that you are wrongfully accused. I don't know what the laws are in Australia so I can only really speak about the US but also have a tendency to believe that there has to be some similarity. Firstly if by any chance you do get convicted, and it is your first offense I would think there would not be any prison time and but there would be probation and fines. It is about money so depending on the amount of accusation it would either be felony or misdemeanor. If a felony it would be very difficult to get another job, and although it may be a misdemeanor the likelihood you would get another job involving exchanging of money would be rare. I think you should go online and perhaps seek the Australia laws and conviction which will give you an idea. However, I can imagine you currently having an attorney and if you do they have an idea as two which route. If you have a court appointed attorney the outcome regardless will not be so much in your favor unless you somehow can process straight forward evidence. Prosecutors like to get to the point and not waste any money on proving innocence. I have a very dear friend here who is prosecutor and has told me too many stories. Will you and your family recover? This is difficult until you know the outcome, because see when all this is done the world will move on and people will forget you but you have to live with this for the rest of your life. So it is dependent on your will, prayers and positivity in order to truly move on. It will no doubt take you a very long time to recover and I do hope you have the emotional support from your husband, without that you will not be able to further gain strength. I will pray for you and your family and know that sometimes when it gets so dark, some day and maybe not right away there is some light that wants to shine through, we just have to want and accept sometimes. All the best to you and so very sad to read this.
annapplez
@annapplez (208)
• Australia
14 Mar 11
Thankyou hardworkinggurl. I needed someone to give me a little ray of sunshine. I do have the support of my husband and both of our families. I'm hoping it will turn out ok. Thankyou for your kind words and thoughtful response.