Criminal Trespassing II in Oregon
My question involves criminal law for the state of: Oregon
Last night my buddy and I were picked up by the police for trespassing.
We were on a college campus and there was a ladder leading to the roof of a building...naturally we climbed it and about 15 minutes later the boys in blue show up and hauled us off. They picked us up at about 12:30 am and we were booked and released. I was home at 4:00 am.
They booked us for Criminal Trespassing II which is a Class C misdemeanor in Oregon. According to the schedules I could find Class C misdemeanor's come with max $1000 fine and 30 days.
Possession of less than an ounce of marijuana is also a Class C misdemeanor in Oregon and, when I was charged with that, I ended up paying like $250 and got "probation" which really wasn't anything at all. Note that this charge was expunged from my record thanks to a diversion class. Also note that, other than this "expunged" offense my record is completely clean save a speeding ticket a few years back.
Anyway, I'm hoping for a similar "sentence" for this one considering I'm a first time offender. My court date isn't until 10/23/2008. Does anyone think I should get a lawyer? Am I way off base in my assumptions regarding sentencing? I'm kind of trying to organize my thoughts more than anything else right now. If anyone has any thoughts/words of wisdom they would like to contribute that would be greatly appreciated.
Re: Criminal Trespassing II in Oregon
You're not a first time offender. You can expect that, despite the dismissal, the prosecutor will be aware of your marijuana charge. So consulting a lawyer is sensible. But by all means, whatever you do, see if the prosecutor will agree to diversion or some other form of conditional discharge. (You were just goofing around a bit, right? Nobody's suggesting you were vandalizing a building, planning to break in, or anything like that, right? And you were sober?)
Re: Criminal Trespassing II in Oregon
Quote:
Quoting
Mr. Knowitall
You're not a first time offender. You can expect that, despite the dismissal, the prosecutor will be aware of your marijuana charge. So consulting a lawyer is sensible. But by all means, whatever you do, see if the prosecutor will agree to diversion or some other form of conditional discharge. (You were just goofing around a bit, right? Nobody's suggesting you were vandalizing a building, planning to break in, or anything like that, right? And you were sober?)
Okay, that was actually something I was wondering about -- if that previous charge would show up or not.
We were just goofing around. There was no damage to the building or anything around it. We didn't vandalize, break in, or otherwise touch anything except the roof of the building which we were walking on.
Sober? Not really. I blew a .07 when we were getting booked. They didn't give my buddy a breathalyzer test as, at least the way I'm thinking about it, they "released him into my care" as I wasn't legally drunk.
We had a six pack with us of which all but one was drank when we were caught...all in all I had a 40oz beer and 1.5 beers off the six pack -- but I'm sure the amount doesn't matter, it's more the fact that it was there that matters I'm sure.
As a somewhat interesting side note they didn't write us up for open container. I mentioned that to someone and they said it's possible that could come up at the court date...
Included in the tickets, lectures, and handcuffs I was given an "Exclusion Notice" by the campus cops (please note that I realise this is probably out of scope for this forum but perhaps someone might have something to say on this) That's a problem as school is going to start in a few weeks. I submitted an appeal today with a nice lengthy letter explaining how I'm an idiot and I'm sorry and we didn't break anything and I'm only 6 months from graduating and...all that kind of stuff. These appeals are for revocation of the exclusion notice and must be approved by the Directory of Public Safety for campus.
Now I said in this appeal letter that I had a crystal-clear police record -- which is true to a private organization doing a background check. They're a "law enforcement" organization and work really closely with the Oregon State Police. I figured that this pot charge was off my record and he wouldn't see it -- now I'm wondering if he's going to think that I tried to lie to him. Poop!
Well, I will have to find a lawyer I suppose. I was considering going to the school lawyers as they're free to us...but seeing as it's the school pressing charges...
My buddy has a lawyer all picked out -- he's done this before apparently...gotta stop hanging out with this guy...
Re: Criminal Trespassing II in Oregon
You do definitely need a lawyer to see what they can do for you.