Name: California "Trespassing" Laws | Penal Code 602 PC
Uploaded: 2017-11-29T20:52:56.000Z
Duration: 4 min 13 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

-Our common sense definition of trespassing

is when you go on somebody else's property.

But in California law and in Penal Code Section 602,

the crime of trespassing is more likely to be charged

in a situation where you interfere with somebody's use

or you refuse to leave after they tell you to go.

-California trespassing laws are unique in that they

can be charged either as a felony, a misdemeanor,

which one to file based on the individual circumstances

can be charged as either an infraction or a misdemeanor.

If you're charged with an infraction of trespass,

However, if you're charged with a misdemeanor

to six months in county jail, or up to a $1,000 fine, or both.

In California, there's another kind of trespass

that's more serious, and this is aggravated trespass.

you make a threat to injure someone seriously,

and within 30 days of making that threat,

you unlawfully enter that person's home or workplace

with the intent to carry out that threat that you had made.

However, if you're charged with aggravated trespass

as a felony, you face up to three years in state prison

convicted of a misdemeanor or a felony trespass,

is that you'll then have a criminal record.

And that conviction will show up on criminal background checks,

-Trespass can be a surprisingly difficult charge

for the prosecutor to prove, and in fact,

The good news is that here at Shouse Law Group,

over the years in defending clients accused of trespass

and ultimately getting their charges reduced or dismissed.

is establishing that you did not interfere

with the property owner's use or enjoyment of their property.

For example, merely entering onto somebody's property

isn't enough to establish criminal trespass.

to take a rest on somebody's property, be it in their grass

or on their bench, that isn't going to be criminal trespass.

You have to be interfering with that property owner's right

to use their property and to enjoy their property.

-Another defense to trespass in California

is that you had consent to enter the property.

Now, for example, say you go to a home of one of your friends

that wasn't aware of the party, calls the cops

Now, you could assert the defense of consent

because one of the other lawfully-residing people

there invited you into the home, and thereby gave you consent

Thus, you would not be guilty of a trespass.

charged with domestic violence or lewd conduct

And the defense lawyer reaches an agreement

with the prosecutor that if you would dismiss that more serious

charge, we'll plead guilty to trespass, sometimes

as a misdemeanor, sometimes even as an infraction.

And the idea is that trespass is a lot less serious

and carries a lot less stigma than the more serious offense

that the person was originally charged with.