[Update] My 62 year old father accidentally took a woman’s phone from a pizza shop, mistakenly thinking it was his phone. She is now suing him for theft by unlawful taking and could face jail time. Wh

[Update] My 62 year old father accidentally took a woman’s phone from a pizza shop, mistakenly thinking it was his phone. She is now suing him for theft by unlawful taking and could face jail time. What should we do?

Edit: link to my first post:

Hey guys. Thank you all for responding to my first post. We took a lot of your advice, scrounged up some money while sacrificing some bills, several days of work and our family vacation, and hired a lawyer for my dad. I wish things had turned out better, but unfortunately they did not.

We ended up going to court, where our lawyer tried to explain to the judge that my dad is a family man with no criminal record and this was an honest mistake. Both our lawyer and the girls lawyer were willing to throw the case out but the girl would not let that happen. Turns out this girl is only an 18 year old high school senior who wanted my dad prosecuted to the full extent of the law. There was a security camera video of my dad taking the phone, which none of us have seen but apparently is pretty damning. He was instructed to either plea it down to a misdemeanor or go to a full trial.

After talking to our lawyer, we considered going to another trial and counter suing for legal fees, loss of potential income and emotional distress, but we are not rich people by any means and couldn't afford legal fees of going to another trial, and absolutely could not afford my dad being found guilty. He ended up just pleading it down to a misdemeanor. He was fined $500 and now has a misdemeanor on his record for the next five years. Thankfully the case is closed and this is over, but we lost thousands of dollars in legal fees and he now has to deal with a criminal record for the next five years. I fucking hate this girl and I wish I could speak my mind to her, but I’ve been instructed to just bite my tongue and eat it.

Thank you all for your help, and while I know this could have been a lot worse, I wish this could have turned out better.