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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Posts
    1

    Default trespassing

    I have just received a "ticket" for trespassing. I don't know if that is considered the same as "home invasion". My friend and I were visitng his mom. He has her house key (for years), has unlimited access to her home, her car, everything (his dad is dead)...Saturday we were returning her car that she permitted me to drive from a car rental place (her son had been driving her car ever since his was wrecked earlier in the week) where her son needed to rent a car. From there to her house is 5 miles.

    My friend unlocks her front door we walk into the kitchen where she is. An argument ensues between son and mom. I'm sitting down, she screams at me, "I hate you! Get out". As I am rising from my seat to leave she rushes over, reaches her arm back (as anyone who is ready to punch someone) and hits me in the arm with full force. I called 911 and locked myself in the bathroom. (I didn't dare leave because she now had time to get a "real" weapon (kitchen, knives...) and she was blocking the doorway into the living room through which you have to go to leave.

    She had screamed for her son to leave too but he stayed there in the kitchen until the police arrived. I'm still in the bathroom. The police take me outside of the house, tell me I can't sit down, put my hands in my pocket, I can't write in my notebook (I have ADD and can't keep a train of thought very long especially under these circumstances).

    He gets my story, another cop gets the son's story and his mom's story. Seconds after she hit me she denied she hit me with her fist; that she had just used her open hand. Also, she said she'd hit me on my left arm which was impossible because my left side was facing the oppposite direction of where she was standing.

    Bottomline, son and I have to go to the Police station. I was told I could write whatever on their paper, but, I DIDN'T HAVE TO IF I DIDN'T WANT TO". He had also asked me that at the house. After I completed the papers (I was rushed and finally he took the papers away I was writing on and said "That's enough, give me what you've written.") Again, I have ADD and have a very difficult time being focused on anything (am on SSI Disability for ADD).

    The cop cited me and the lady's son with "trespassing" and said even though he had a key, she didn't tell us to leave...Now WE have to appear in court for a hearing. The cop told us they were not going to charge her with anything because "she is an 84 year old frail woman". She's not 84, she's 74, she had enough strength to hit me with force, a clenched fist, (her son was right there), drives herself anywhere she wants to go, goes shopping, exercises, takes out her own trash, does all her laundry (down stairs in the basement...)

    So I am cited she gets away with the excuse of being frail, I lose my contact lense when she hit me (frail lady???) and since then I have been having ear pain, neck pain, and upper arm pain. I can't go to a hospital or doctor because I don't have medical insurance, no savings, no one who could lend me money...and I have no way of getting there. I called my psychiatrist who gave me permission to take a medicine my other doctor prescribed for me. Nothing helps! I can't sleep, I can no longer go out of the house. I don't think the lady would attack me here but I have serious doubts about her family. Now I am homebound and can't get out to do anything. I startle at loud noises and am shaking.

    I don't get how I'm the one who ends up getting a citation (it's not relevant that the cop said, "Don't worry it's nothing more than a speeding ticket". I'm the victim, I was hit, I didn't force myself in, I NEVER said ANYTHING threatening, intimated anything remotely like that that ANYONE could possibly misconstrue. I have no path of exit and I take shelter in a locked bathroom until the police arrive.

    Do I have any recourse? I am now homebound (phobic about going outside), can't afford a lawyer, and can't imagine why I am the one who gets a TICKET!

    Help!

    A beaten trespasser PS - What is BBCode?[/i]

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Posts
    758

    Default Trespassing Charge

    It is unlikely that your friend's having a key is, of itself, enough to defeat a trespassing charge, as the two of you were ordered to leave. You had permission to come in, sure, but the permission was revoked.

    Your defense to the trespassing charge apparently is that you were attacked by the homeowner, and were in too much fear to leave the bathroom, let alone her house. The prosecutor apparently doesn't believe you. The police report may shed some light on what the police and prosecution believe happened.

    If you can't afford a lawyer and are charged with a criminal trespass, you should be able to apply for a court appointed lawyer to assist you with your defense.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    13

    Default

    I too was charged with tresspassing when I was picking up my minor son (9 at the time) from a home he wasn't supposed to be at (his father left him there). She got angry with me, slammed me into a wall as I was trying to leave her porch, called the police and said I was trying to assult her. My son was there to verify I hadn't done anything wrong but because it was HER home, I was the one who was charged. The laws really stink in regards to things like this and its very unfortunate. I have a tresspassing history now because of something so minute. They too told me it's a "pimple on your record". Yeah, to them perhaps, but it's still on your record when it should't be.

    I'm not an attorney by no means but I would recommend getting a court appointed attorney and fight they charges. If you have a police report that could help you in any way, plus your friends story, perhaps they would side with you. I would also look into filing charges against his mom for her actions and follow the advice of Aaron (above).

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