Criminal Trespass Case Study

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Mr. Alex Cabrera 2251 Vernon Blvd. Long Island City, NY 11101. October 14, 2014 Re: Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree; personal matter Dear Mr. Cabrera: It was great meeting you last week. As we have previously discussed, our firm is representing you for a charge of Criminal Trespass in the third degree. You have asked for advice on whether there is sufficient evidence to constitute a case against you. After extensive research and based on the facts, I believe that a court would most likely conclude that there is sufficient evidence to charge you for Criminal Trespass in the third degree. On August 11, 2014, you occupied a building as a student at Queensbridge College, to protest the cancellation of required…show more content…
The court will consider two things: whether there was a lawful order not to remain and whether there was defiance of that order. In order to make a lawful order not to remain, the order must be clear, with a legitimate basis, and personally communicated by an authorized person. For example, where a Dean tells a former professor, in a face to face conversation, to leave the office located in a community college, a court has held that this scenario satisfies all the elements of clear, legitimate basis and personally communicated by an authorized person. Thus, this order not to remain was lawful. In order to be defiant of an order, one must knowingly and unlawfully remain. For example, once the former professor was told that he would not be given his personnel file, there was a legitimate basis for his being asked to leave. He was asked to leave numerous times by the dean, but he remained nonetheless. A court held he lost his license and privilege of remaining on the premise and committed the offense of trespass when he defied said lawful order which was personally communicated to him by an authorized person. Even if an authorized person communicated an order not to remain just once, a court has held that it would suffice and by remaining unlawfully, one has defied that…show more content…
Here, Dean Sykes gave a clear, personally communicated order when he told students not to remain in Highgate Hall. In addition, he specifically stated, “I’m talking to you Alex.” Furthermore, since Dean Sykes is part of the Board of Trustees, he is established as an authorized person. Dean Sykes is also in the best position to make the judgment call as to whether his order not to remain has a legitimate basis and since staff members chose not to enter the building because of the protest, he had legitimate basis to give the order not to remain. Although you were under the impression that you had permission from Provost Blakey to remain in the building, the order from Dean Sykes was sufficient to ratify the initial order given by the Provost. The order was defied when you did not leave after Dean Sykes’ specific instructions. In summary, based on the facts discussed above, I believe that a court would almost certainly conclude that there is sufficient evidence to find that a lawful order not to remain existed and that there was defiance of such order, making out a Criminal Trespass in the third degree. From here on, I would recommend avoiding any social networking posts that discuss this matter. In this way, there will be nothing relevant posted that could have a negative effect on your case. Our office will be in touch with you

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