AURORA | Municipal court officials are asking city council to bump the dollar limits for a felony theft case from $1,000 to $2,000, a move that would put the city’s laws in line with a recently-amended state law.
Under current city law, any theft involving items valued at $1,000 or less is prosecuted as a misdemeanor, but thefts of property worth more than that are felonies.
Deputy District Attorney George Zierk said a recent change in state law bumped that threshold to $2,000 so municipal prosecutors are asking city council to change city law to match.
Without the change, some theft cases would have to be prosecuted in county or district court instead of municipal court, he said. Under the city’s charter, the municipal court can only handle misdemeanor cases, never felonies.
Zierk said it makes sense in this case for the city’s laws to mirror the state’s.
“We don’t have to do it, but I think it’s good policy,” Zierk said.
Just a few years ago the state increased the felony theft threshold from $500 to $1,000, a move lawmakers said was necessary because the value of commonly stolen personal items — including cellular phones and MP3 players — had spiked dramatically in just a few years.
City prosecutors are also asking council to change the theft by receiving and theft of rental property laws so those are no longer separate types of theft and treated instead as general theft. That’s also a change state lawmakers made this year and Zierk said city prosecutors want the city’s rules to mirror the state’s law.
The measures were scheduled to go before city council’s Public Safety Committee July 2 and if it clears that committee will go to the full city council later this summer.
Zierk said if council approves the plan the change will take effect in October.
And what a clever way to manipulate crime statistics, again, for Oatbag.