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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
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    Default Can You Get a Police Officer Charged With Trespassing if He Serves You at Home

    My question involves criminal law for the state of: Vermont

    Hi,
    Thank you in advance. I was cited and released on a DUI I charge last month. Court date came and my attorney calls as I am looking for parking. There was no court that day, cop screwed up per the prosecutor as they had been notified that there was no court that day. Paperwork was sent back to cop, and he called Thursday night late a couple times by the looks of it (I was asleep). Left a message for me to call even though he knows I have representation. I sent an email to my attorney Fri AM with the number and name, and asked him to call the cop back. Well, he must have been in court all day as I did not get a response. Friday night the phone rings again at 9pm, I let it go to voicemail. No message. 11:30 PM there is a spotlight on the house per my wife, I wasn't home, then the bell rang, door pounded on, etc. She was freaked out and hid with the kids.

    I posted the property no trespassing today with a big sign at the end of the driveway, changed my outgoing voicemail to include the name of my attorney, filled up voicemail so no message can be left. Can I have him arrested for trespassing if he comes back tonight? The Vermont trespassing statute is here.

    I am concerned about e at the bottom, but I have received my citation, and signed it when I got it. Can he trespass to serve another one or is that only orders signed by a judge?
    Thanks
    Green mountain bootsy

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    19,901

    Default Re: Cop Gave Me Acourt Date when Court Was Out. We Showed Up and Paperwork Sent Back

    Did you bother to read the statute; the last section (e)? It doesn't matter if you posted it or not. He can come on the property to lawfully serve you or arrest you or whatever legitimate business he has.

  3. #3
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    Jan 2017
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    Default Re: Cop Gave Me Acourt Date when Court Was Out. We Showed Up and Paperwork Sent Back

    I read it. Wasn't sure if that was a civil or criminal citation. It isn't clear in the statute. Thank you. This happened fairly recently. http://www.reformer.com/stories/ag-i...ng-case,393913

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Cop Gave Me Acourt Date when Court Was Out. We Showed Up and Paperwork Sent Back

    DUI is CRIMINAL. Not that it matters. Do you actually have a problem comprehending the stuff you post? Read the paragraph that starts with "According to the Attorney General ..." Civil or criminal a police officer is allowed on your property, fenced, posted or otherwise, to serve you. You should be talking to your lawyer about this rather than trying to invent your own "defense" strategies, which might indeed bring MORE criminal charges against you. If your wife doesn't want to be scared by police showing up at the house, maybe she should reconsider being married to a criminal. Hell, I was only a WITNESS in several criminal proceedings and had cops delivering subpoenas to my house.

  5. #5
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    Jan 2017
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    6

    Default Re: Cop Gave Me Acourt Date when Court Was Out. We Showed Up and Paperwork Sent Back

    Oh I see, you aren't actually an attorney. Just an opinionated commenter. Thank you for your opinion

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
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    20,594

    Default Re: Cop Gave Me Acourt Date when Court Was Out. We Showed Up and Paperwork Sent Back

    So, when they do issue a new court date, how will even your attorney manage to get in touch with you if you have no voice mail? Does he know the number to your super secret bat phone?

    If you are trying to dodge service, you could end up being on the receiving end of an arrest warrant, instead. I suppose it is your choice if you want to try and delay the inevitable, but I don't see that you would do yourself any favors by pulling the blanket over your head and hoping everyone goes away.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    8,238

    Default Re: Can You Get a Police Officer Charged With Trespassing if He Serves You at Home

    Quote Quoting bootzila
    View Post
    Can he trespass to serve another one or is that only orders signed by a judge?
    13 V.S.A. § 3705(e) states as follows:

    (e) A law enforcement officer shall not be prosecuted under subsection (a) of this section if he or she is authorized to serve civil or criminal process, including citations, summons, subpoenas, warrants, and other court orders, and the scope of his or her entrance onto the land or place of another is no more than necessary to effectuate the service of process.

    The statute is thus quite broad allowing the police office to enter upon your property to effect service of any civil or criminal process, specifically including citations. So the answer to your question of whether the cop may enter upon your land to serve you another citation is clearly yes.

    Even if it was trespass (and it’s not, but I’m discussing it just to play this out), that would not make the service invalid, it would just make the officer subject to criminal prosecution for trespass. And do you really think the local police department for whom he works and the local prosecutor who works along side them would really prosecute the officer for trespass for this? I think that would be pretty unlikely.

  8. #8
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    Jan 2017
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    Default Re: Can You Get a Police Officer Charged With Trespassing if He Serves You at Home

    Taxing Matters,
    Thank you for reading my question and answering it. I sincerely appreciate it. There was a case here in VT where a sheriff was arrested for trespass on a similar issue, but the AG stepped in, and the decision was not appealed to the supreme court so it is possible yes (link above). I tried and went to court. The officer gave me a bad court date, and wasted an hour of my attorney's time ($250 of my money), so why should I make this easy for him? I get it, the risk I run is that he shows up at my house. But that is fine, I have nothing to hide. If he had owned it, apologized in the voice mail, and stepped up like a real person, I would have called him back. But he didn't, didn't tell me what he was calling about, and well I want my lawyer present at the least when I see him again. My attorney spoke with the prosecutor, so they know I have legal counsel retained. To show up at my house at 11:30 PM, shine a spotlight in my house, and bang on my door is rude and unprofessional in my opinion. Thank you again for the help!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2015
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    47.606 N 122.332 W in body, still at 90 S in my mind.
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    Default Re: Can You Get a Police Officer Charged With Trespassing if He Serves You at Home

    No process server calls and warns you they're coming by to serve papers. If they did you could just arrange to not be present.

    Showing up at 2330 may be poor manners but, they are trying to make sure that you're home. Most people are home at 2330. Bad manners are not illegal whereas DUI is.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    19,901

    Default Re: Can You Get a Police Officer Charged With Trespassing if He Serves You at Home

    Bootz, you seem to entirely misunderstand what happened in that article on the sheriff. It wasn't appealed anywhere because the charges were dismissed as being unsupported by the law. There was nothing to appeal. The AG specifically noted the same clause in the law that I posted initially and Taxing Matters (by the way Taxing Matters is very knowledgeable attroney) that the law permits this CIVIL or CRIMINAL. You are grasping at straws, there is no legal principle that allows you a law enforcement officer to be charged for tresspassing while delivering lawfully issued court docuements. The sheriff who arrested the other sheriff made a mistake. Arrests make NO PRECEDENT. Charages are dismissed day in and day out because the prosecutor determines that the arresting officer was in error about a law actually being violated.

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