People v. VL

- The Defendant, whom was an undocumented immigrant, had a 4-Count felony indictment for Financial Identity Theft and Forgery. The Defendant worked at a factory for minimum wage, with false identification and a false social security number. At trial, the judge agreed with the Defense’s argument that the State produced no evidence whatsoever for Financial Identity Theft, i.e., Defendant’s intent to defraud, even though he admitted to the police, before retaining counsel, that he bought the identification solely to work, because he was undocumented, and could not work legally in the United States. The court accepted the argument that he worked and got paid, and thus, there was no theft; and, there was no proof that the purported identity was a person who actually existed. Later, the US Supreme Court ratified this argument in another case of Flores-Figueroa v. United States. All counts were dismissed or directed out and the Defendant was completely exonerated of all 4 counts with a judgment of acquittal, without even putting on one witness.