Caroline Giuliani Gets 1 Day of Community Service for Shoplifting Charge

Aug. 31, 2010— -- The daughter of former prosecutor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani will have her shoplifting charge dismissed if she completes one day of community service, according to a judge who warned her today to "stay out of trouble."

Criminal Court Judge Jennifer Schecter adjourned Caroline Giuliani's case in contemplation of dismissal, meaning the case would be closed and sealed if the Harvard student, 20, does her community service and stays out of trouble for six months.

The Manhattan district attorney's office said the terms of the dismissal were not unusual for a first-time offender with a low dollar-value theft.

Giuliani appeared briefly before Schecter today to accept the deal.

Manhattan District Attorney's office spokesman Eric Duggan said she "agreed to an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal for her shoplifting charge ... She will serve one day of community service in New York."

Schecter accepted the suggestion and read a standard warning to Caroline Giuliani: "Stay out of trouble and avoid re-arrest. In six months the matter will be dismissed and sealed."

Duggan said the charge will be dismissed if Giuliani does her day of community service and doesn't get arrested again for the next six months. He said the deal was "the standard agreement in the majority of first-time shoplifting cases with low dollar amounts."

Her community service will be performed at the Department of Sanitation, sources said, the same place that celebrity violators Naomi Campbell and Boy George did court ordered community service stints.

Caroline Giuliani, who is due back at Harvard this week, appeared in court with her mother. Her father was not present.

She was arrested in the upscale Sephora's store Aug. 4. She was caught by a store security camera shoplifting five cosmetics items worth more than $100 -- including Aqua Cream, Dior Skinflash Primer, Bliss hydroderm cream, a rollerball funnel and a hairnet -- and escorted out of the store in handcuffs.

The arrest came as a surprise given her connection to a politician who made his reputation as a hard-charging prosecutor and no-nonsense mayor of New York City. Rudy Giuliani's reputation rose for his calm demeanor during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, which carried him into the early rounds of the Republican presidential primaries before he dropped out.

Caroline Giuliani has been estranged from her father since he split from his newscaster wife Donna Hanover, who learned of the split when her husband announced it at a news conference. Hanover escorted her daughter from the police precinct where she was being held after her arrest.