Text DelSignore Law at 781-686-5924 with your name and what kind of charge you are texting regarding.
If you are charged with burglary, there are two types of crimes you can be charged with, burglary with intent to cause a misdemeanor, and the other being burglary with intent to cause a felony. With a burglary charge, the government has to prove that you intentionally entered onto the property without permission, with the intent to commit a misdemeanor or a felony. There is also a provisional law related to whether the burglary occurred during the daytime or during the night. Essentially, the penalty is the same.
Felony burglary found with the intent to commit a felony holds a maximum penalty of 2.5 years in the house of corrections. If the charge is burglary with intent to commit a misdemeanor, then the maximum penalty is a 6 month house of correction sentence, and obviously you are charged with a misdemeanor as opposed to having a felony conviction on your record. If you are found guilty of felony burglary, you will have to take a DNA test and will have many of the collateral consequences associated with a felony conviction, which will limit job prospects.
In Massachusetts, sometimes you can accept a disposition of continuance without a finding, typically referred to as a CWOF, which is technically not a conviction. However, for some purposes even a CWOF or admission will count as a conviction depending on who is running a background check. Depending on the circumstances, criminal defense attorneys may be able to convince the prosecutor to reduce a felony burglary offense to a misdemeanor, so that you avoid the possibility of a CWOF being converted into guilty should you violate probation.
While these are some solution’s to resolve a case in the short term, you can also plan to try and resolve the case on a trial date. Many criminal cases are very defensible and it requires the attorney to look at all the details and surrounding circumstances to see if the government can prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, each and every element of the criminal offense of which you were charged.
If you have any questions regarding being charged with a felony or misdemeanor burglary offense in Massachusetts feel free to contact Attorney DelSignore at 781-686-5924.