Michigan residents will likely have empathy with a woman in another state who faced charges related to embezzlement and conspiracy, which were later dismissed. However, the harm that the arrest caused to her personal life and career could not be reversed. As soon as she was arrested for the felonies, her employers terminated her employment.
The woman worked as a bus driver, and her husband was the director of service at the same company. The couple was arrested in February after an investigation that was launched last October. They were accused of stealing property from their employers. Reportedly, deputies executed two warrants to search the home of the defendants, and they claimed to have found items to the value of approximately $15,000 belonging to their employers.
According to the legal counsel for the woman, neither she nor her husband ever had a list of the garage’s inventory list indicating any missing items. The charges against her were dropped after a sheriff’s deputy admitted that he also never had an inventory list, which would show that the items found during the search belonged to the employer. Reportedly, he testified that he would not corroborate the allegations against the woman.
The woman has since filed a federal lawsuit in pursuit of recovery of damages that include benefits, lost wages and the cost of therapy for emotional harm. Furthermore, she seeks monetary recovery for public humiliation and defamation. In similar cases in Michigan, dismissal of charges could sometimes give rise to civil claims for monetary damages for malicious prosecution, false arrest or another ground. For anyone who faces charges that include felonies, the first line of defense is retaining the services of an experienced criminal defense attorney.