My question involves criminal law for the state of: Arkansas
A group of peers and I have recently been charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing for our presence on railroad tracks on night. We were committing no other illegal, or even inappropriate acts, and we were unaware of the illegal nature of our presence there, since there were no markers to designate our actions as trespassing.
We were also informed that Union Pacific had to stop train movement on the tracks for 15-30 minutes while the officers escorted us off the railroad. Because of Union Pacific's involvement this has been ruled a federal matter and they have assigned a federal agent to handle this. We were also informed that Union Pacific could raise the charge from misdemeanor to felony.
My questions are these:
1) What are the possible penalties (maximum and minimum) in terms of fines and jail time, that could be given for the misdemeanor criminal trespassing charge?
2) If Union pacific raises the charges what will charges could they raise to?
3) What would be the fines or jail time related to those possible raised charges that Union Pacific may choose to pursue?

