LAX Janitor Allegedly Steals Passenger Property, Diversion

Our client, age 45, was a janitor at Los Angeles International Airport. She regularly swept, vacuumed and cleaned up passenger debris in the gate areas for various carriers in one terminal. It was a thankless job, but it paid her expenses. She was happy to work, as she had come to the United States for better opportunities, leaving El Salvador seven years earlier. She was a permanent resident (“Green Card” holder).

It was not uncommon for passengers to leave their luggage unattended while they went to a nearby restaurant or restroom in the terminal, trusting that no one would open their luggage or even leave with it. Passengers would often leave their luggage and a jacket on a seat to reserve the seat, too, while they stepped away.

However, sometimes a passenger would actually board a plane and leave their luggage back at LAX. Our client would suspect this was so after the luggage remained unattended for several hours. She would then call her boss to report the situation. Her supervisor would then usually call the LAX Police, who would report to the location and take possession of the luggage.

In October 2023, our client was at work in her assigned terminal at LAX and noticed several pieces of luggage, including jackets and daypacks, that had been sitting on a few chairs for several hours.

Our client asked the nearby passengers if anyone knew whose luggage it was and no one responded. Our client then called her supervisor, who told her to throw away the luggage, jackets and the daypack.

The supervisor had instructed our client to do this once before, so our client obeyed his instructions.

As luck would have it, almost immediately after our client had disposed of the items in the trash, the passengers returned to the area and demanded to know if any passengers had seen who took their luggage. The passengers pointed towards our client, who had continued cleaning near the same gate.

Allegedly, our client denied any wrongdoing and said she did not know anything about the passengers’ luggage.

Airport Police were then summoned to the terminal and gate. They demanded to search our client’s employee locker area, where they located one jacket belonging to the passengers in a trash can in the locker room.

Our client was then immediately arrested. She was released several hours later after signing a promise to appear in the Airport Courthouse in about three months.

The client and her sister then called Greg Hill & Associates and met with Greg the same day. The client and her sister explained the above facts and wanted to know if the client would be deported back to El Salvador.

Greg answered that this depended upon whether the case was charged as a felony or a misdemeanor. Greg explained that if the case was charged as a felony, the offense would be regarded as an aggravated felony, as well as a crime involving moral turpitude, under immigration law (and the client would be subject to deportation) because the punishment could exceed one year, even if the client was able to resolve the case with formal probation.

However, if the case was charged as a misdemeanor, the case would be eligible for judicial diversion and no conviction would result. The client would then be able to renew her Green Card and have no deportation problems.

Greg said he expected the approximate value of the items lost to be anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000. Greg stated that he had seen cases with $3,000 in theft charged as a misdemeanor and the same amount being charged as a felony. In other words, the case could be charged either way.

To help the client’s chances of the case being filed as a misdemeanor, Greg recommended that the client enroll in and complete an online shoplifting prevention class. The client did this almost immediately.

Greg then mailed the certificate of completion to both the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office at the Airport Courthouse (who would handle the case if it was a misdemeanor) and to the District Attorney’s office (who would handle the case if filed as a felony). In the letter, Greg explained that the client really did not have the mental state to commit a theft because she was just following her supervisor’s instructions and if she had the intent to steal, she would have taken far more than a jacket (which was in the trash anyways). Moreover, our client was a Green Card holder and the prosecution is supposed to consider this in resolving the case.

The day of the arraignment then arrived and Greg was happy to see that the case was filed as a misdemeanor.

After several appearances, Greg requested judicial diversion and the judge agreed. The Los Angeles City Attorney did not even oppose judicial diversion. Our client was placed on one year of judicial diversion with an obligation to perform 30 hours of community service, stay away from LAX for a year (unless a passenger or picking up someone there), complete an online theft prevention class (which she already did) and pay restitution.

The amount of restitution would be determined at a future hearing, but our client was not terribly concerned with this, as she was simply happy to avoid deportation (and a conviction).