By the time Christine Bemis got picked up for selling heroin in March 2018, she barely cared.

Around 5 p.m. on Dec. 20, Officer Matt Lima of the Somerset (Mass.) Police Department pulled up to a Stop & Shop for a report of shoplifting. An employee had seen women putting groceries in bags without scanning them — various food items, including a ham, totaling about $220.

When he arrived at the Brattleboro courthouse that day in 1994, David Morey knew he was in trouble.

BRATTLEBORO — Detective Joshua Lynde and his team were cruising down Putney Road one morning in October when they saw the guy.