Surely everyone understands that a lawyer’s work isn’t limited to defending only the honest and upstanding from the arbitrary power of the police, the prosecutor’s office, the state, or ill-wishers. Anyone who thinks otherwise holds an overly romanticized view of the profession. A lawyer’s task is to see that the law is upheld by every party to a legal dispute, in the client’s interest. The right to legal defense for every person is an unquestionable hallmark of a democratic society. And our firm’s lawyers provide professional help in every possible case — even when the client is no saint.
A Detective From Central Asia
Zinaida — that is our heroine’s name — arrived in Berlin from Kyrgyzstan the year before. When we first met her at our firm, she mentioned, not without a hint of pride, that she had previously worked as a detective in the police force. Now, though, she herself had landed on the radar of the Berlin police and needed our help. Zinaida is a young woman, striking in appearance, quick in her movements. Husband, two children — back in Bishkek. Her studies at a Berlin university had separated Zinaida from her family; she had gotten into the university through one of the international programs. As the daughter of a mid-level but influential official, Zinaida had made her way through life according to the customs of her home country: an easy admission to university, quick placement in a decent starting job. And now new horizons were opening up in a new country. Joining the scholarship program felt like something of a quantum leap. If only that leap had extended to her mindset as well.
It’s no secret that in Russia or the Central Asian republics, when a police investigator or fire inspector wants something, they generally get it without much trouble. Who would dare refuse a permanent fifty-percent restaurant discount, or turn down wrapping up a couple of cartfuls of expensive liquor, or serving them ahead of the line — when refusing the whim of someone with a badge means your business faces endless inspections, a shutdown order over some newly discovered fire-safety violation, and, most likely, something off with the staff’s health certificates too, or, heaven forbid, a suspicion of tax evasion. Or take a more recent example: staff at a Moscow pizza chain found drugs stashed in the restroom and reported it to management and the police — and now the chain’s manager stands accused of drug trafficking. In short, as the saying goes, habit is a second nature, and breaking it is no easy task.
In Berlin, Zinaida constantly found herself missing the right phone numbers in her contacts list — someone to call to have a driver who had cut in front of an important person’s car dealt with, or to score free tickets to some star’s concert. Berlin was wonderful, but it lacked the one thing that had given her life back home its very meaning: the ability to pull strings and fix problems. Her social standing after the move looked like a chair with wobbly legs — none of the tools she was used to for raising it existed in Germany, yet the habit of enjoying privileges and getting everything she needed for free remained. A dramatic paradox.
Out Shopping
On one of those autumn days when unseen heavenly forces drape a gray tarp over Berlin’s sky, bodies start to ache from a lack of sunlight, and pharmacies do a brisk trade in vitamin D, Zinaida decided to treat herself to some shopping. Stepping into one of the Karstadt department stores, she found herself in a realm where the glow of the lighting, the variety of fabrics, and the red “%” price tags more than made up for the missing sunshine. One could practically live there — if only there were someone around to show off the outfits to. Zinaida gathered the items that caught her eye and headed into the fitting room.
To the store detective monitoring shoppers via the security cameras installed everywhere except the fitting rooms, Zinaida’s behavior seemed rather odd. The young woman had gone into the fitting room with items — and came out without them. Customers typically head to the checkout with their purchases, or return unwanted items to the rack, or occasionally leave them behind in the fitting room. So the detective’s first move was to send an assistant to check whether the heavily made-up young woman had left anything behind in her fitting room. Nothing was found. Meanwhile, Zinaida strode, almost at a run, straight past the checkout toward the exit. That is when it came: “Excuse me, please stop! Show me what’s in your bag!”
And inside the bag of this former Kyrgyz police detective lay, neatly folded, two dresses worth more than one hundred fifty euros. “Oh my, I completely forgot… How could I have walked past the checkout?! I got held up in the store, then looked at my watch. I panicked, thinking I’d be late for a romantic date, and just grabbed my things and ran, completely forgetting about the dresses!” The detective listened to this confession with the patience of a saint — original explanations for an “accidental” theft are, after all, in short supply. And if this particular detective ever dreams of becoming a writer, he’ll need a couple thousand more years on the job to gather material to rival Saint Augustine’s “Confessions” in sheer volume. With a resigned sigh, he offered Zinaida the chance to pay a fine at the register and return the items to the store.
Following the scenario Zinaida herself had proposed, the lady headed off to her romantic date with no new outfit and an emptied wallet. For the following week, she couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling. Her experience as an investigator told her it couldn’t possibly be that simple — items returned, a fine paid, and everyone forgets about it. Experience, after all, is sacred. Before long, Zinaida’s mailbox delivered the news that she was being charged under “theft with intent to resell,” §243 — a sentence of three months to ten years, with no option of a fine instead. It wasn’t classified among the serious offenses, but a prison term seemed unavoidable. Zinaida came to our law firm.
Digging Someone Out of the Mire Is No Easy Task…
At her first meeting with the lawyer, Zinaida repeated the same version she had given the store detective: “I was rushing to a date, I forgot myself, let alone the dresses.” A date is romantic enough, certainly, but not sufficient grounds to escape criminal liability. Our lawyer requested the case file. The picture as the detective saw it looked like this:
The young woman had entered the sales floor, selected some items, and gone into the fitting room. Some time later she came out empty-handed and walked the floor again. Her fitting room was checked in the meantime — nothing was left there. The security guard at the exit had already been alerted to a possible theft. Zinaida then suddenly hurried, almost running, past the checkout and was stopped just outside the store. What followed was simply a repeat of Zinaida’s explanation — one our lawyer had already heard. It was clear from the file that there was no realistic chance of closing the case without any consequences in court. She would have to face some punishment — but the severity of that punishment was something worth fighting over.
Our firm’s lawyer petitioned to discontinue the case under §153 for minor significance. That provision requires, among other things, minor harm and no prior convictions. Zinaida had no criminal record — but there was little hope the prosecutor’s office would agree to close the case outright, given that the value of the theft was far from the “symbolic” twenty euros typically associated with such closures. Still, the step was tactically necessary, if only to noticeably lower the perceived severity of the charge. The next goal was to get the offense requalified to a lesser one, so that Zinaida would not end up with a criminal record, be expelled from university, or be sent back, once her sentence was served, to her family and father in Kyrgyzstan.
Outcome: Requalified to §242 StGB, and a Fine
There is a principle, one that cannot be formally invoked in court but nonetheless quietly governs how arguments unfold: “Every doubt is resolved in favor of the accused.” Any intent to resell the items was merely an assumption, one that could hardly be proven at all. Had Zinaida already had a similar episode in her past, with an established intent to resell, the outcome might have been different — but in this case, where it was an isolated incident in an otherwise clean history… the prosecutor’s office agreed with our lawyer’s arguments and requalified the charge to §242, which carries a fine instead. In the end, Zinaida’s case was closed after she paid a fine of one hundred fifty euros to the state. Zinaida was free to continue building her student life in Berlin, with no fear of having to return to her home country.
Conclusion
Before long, however, she was back at our firm with the exact same kind of case. So, to be continued.
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