Charges dismissed against woman accused of shoplifting dozens of times from same store

Long Beach’s city prosecutor announced Friday that his office is appealing a judge’s ruling this week that resulted in the dismissal of a misdemeanor case against a woman accused of shoplifting more than 30 times from the same store.

The case against Florence Leslie Miller was dismissed Tuesday after being transferred for proceedings to determine if she was mentally competent to stand trial, City Prosecutor Douglas Haubert said.

“We are appealing the decision by the Los Angeles Superior Court to dismiss 34 misdemeanor theft charges without first trying to rehabilitate the defendant,” Haubert told City News Service after the dismissal. “This is a person who clearly needs help. We are not going to give up until she gets the help she needs.”

The 26-year-old woman — who was arrested July 11 by Long Beach police — still remains behind bars, according to jail records. She is still charged separately in a felony criminal case that was filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office just under a week after the misdemeanor case was filed.

Court records indicate that she is charged with one count each of second-degree robbery and grand theft of money, labor or property in that case, which is due back for a hearing Sept. 18 at the Mental Health Courthouse in Hollywood.

The misdemeanor case filed last month by the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office had charged Miller with 30 misdemeanor theft counts, with an additional four charges subsequently added involving the same TJ Maxx store.

Haubert said Miller would steal items like handbags and clothes — usually worth less than $950, meaning they did not amount to felony crimes. She would leave before officers arrived to investigate, but then she’d return to steal again, sometimes on the same day or the next day, according to Haubert.

The City Prosecutor’s Office said the estimated value of that allegedly stolen merchandise was about $6,000 and that anti-theft wire locks were cut to remove some of the merchandise.

Haubert noted last month that the persistence of TJ Maxx employees, who filed theft reports and collected photos and videos of the incidents, made the filing of the case possible. He also commended Long Beach police for their effort in piecing the case together, saying the “bold nature of the crimes is particularly alarming.”

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