My friend is also charged with shoplifting ($70). this is the first time for him, and he will go to court in two weeks. He went to see the lawyer, and he was told that there are two choices: 1) Using Pretrial accelerated rehabilitation (AR), in which he need to get the aggreement from prosecutor. Since this is pretrial, this does not involve the distiction between " guilty or "not guilty". This way he will have a probation about 6 months-2years. As long as you do not break the law again in this period, the case will be dismissed after the probation time.
2) plead guilty and ask for reduction. Since it is the first time misdemeanor, probably he will get a fine and do some community service. the case may be dismissed faster than AR.
Maybe I have some misunderstanding, any help are highly appreciated. Since he will apply for I-485 very soon, which one is better in terms of green card and job application, AR or second choice? Many thanks.
