Penal Code 602 PC -- California Criminal Trespass & Trespassing Laws
Our California criminal defense attorneys have local law offices in Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Francisco and all surrounding counties.
California Penal Code 602 PC prohibits criminal trespass. In its simplest form, trespassing takes place when you enter someone else's property without permission or a right to do so. It's an illegal intrusion that interferes with the rights of another person or property.
A criminal trespass can take place in a variety of situations.some that are common and some that are completely obscure. Below our California criminal defense attorneys will discuss the crime of trespassing, its common defenses, and its penalties.
California Penal Code 602 PC (and its related sections) penalize over 30 acts that constitute criminal trespassing. These acts include anything from taking oysters from another's land to avoiding or refusing screening at an airport or courthouse.
The most common acts that California trespassing laws prohibit are:
- entering someone else's property with the intent to damage that property,
- entering someone else's property with the intent to interfere with or obstruct the business activities conducted thereon,
- entering and "occupying" another's property without permission, and
- refusing to leave private property after you've been asked to do so.
Even if it appears that you committed one of these offenses, don't despair. People get wrongfully arrested for trespassing all the time based on misleading evidence and false accusations. In addition, California criminal trespass law contains a variety of "technical requirements" that must be met before you can be convicted of this offense.
Depending on the circumstances of your case.and under which subsection of California Penal Code 602 PC you were charged.there are a number of defenses that a California criminal trespass defense lawyer could present on your behalf in an effort to reduce or dismiss your charge(s).
What are the Defenses to a California Criminal Trespass Charge?
Examples of these technicalities and defenses include (but are by no means limited to):
- You didn't actually obstruct or interfere with the activities that took place on the property
If you were charged with entering someone else's property with the intent to interfere with or obstruct the business activities conducted on that property, failure to do so entitles you to an acquittal.1
Simply being on the property.even if you were engaged in activities that are "frowned upon" by the property's owner.exempts you from a California criminal trespassing charge absent an actual obstruction or interference with the business.
For example, a group of protestors who were distributing political leaflets at a fair were acquitted of their trespass charges.2
Even though they ignored the owner's request to stop their distribution, they weren't obstructing the business of the fair. They made no physical contact with other patrons, and people who wished to view the exhibit near where the protestors stood could simply walk around them.
By contrast, and using a similar example, California criminal trespass charges were affirmed when a group protesting at Disneyland was determined to obstruct and interfere with Disneyland's operation.3
This group set up a table to distribute information in the passenger unloading area for the tram that transported people from the parking lot to the park's entrance. As a result of the group's activities, the tram had to be diverted to another area.
- You had a right to be on the property
For example, participation in a lawful union activity is a defense to a criminal trespassing prosecution under California Penal Code 602 PC.4
- You had consent to be on the property
Unlike a California civil trespass, "consent" in a California criminal trespass case can't be withdrawn or revoked. This means that if you had consent to enter the property, remaining there won't subject you to criminal prosecution.5 This rule applies to public property.
If a private property owner (or someone on his/her behalf) asks you to leave, you must do so unless (1) you were engaged in a protected activity (free speech, for example), or (2) you were invited onto the property and were not otherwise engaged in illegal activity.
*Engaging in "constitutionally protected activities" is another technicality that could mean the difference between guilt and innocence. A California criminal trespassing defense attorney would know whether to pursue such a claim as a defense.
- You didn't "occupy" the property
In order to be convicted of California criminal trespass, you must actually deprive the owner of his property for a substantial, continuous period of time.6 You must not only enter the property but must "invade another's exclusive right of possession".7
If, for example, you set up a temporary one-night camp site on someone's beach property, intending to leave the next morning, you would not be guilty of "occupying" that person's property. Given these facts, you could not be convicted of a California criminal trespass charge based on entering and occupying another's land.
- "No trespassing" signs weren't spaced properly
California Penal Code 602 PC has certain subsections that specify exactly how often signs must be posted before you can be convicted of this offense.
For example, California Penal Code section 602(j) PC prohibits building a fire on another's property "where signs forbidding trespass are displayed at intervals not greater than one mile along the exterior boundaries and at all roads and trails entering the lands".
Free speech, other constitutional rights violations and, of course, improper police conduct will always be investigated as possible defenses by a skilled California criminal trespass lawyer.
Penalties, Punishment, and Sentencing for Criminal Trespassing under California Penal Code 602 PC
California trespassing laws are unique in that they can be filed as an infraction, a misdemeanor, or a felony. Although all three are possible, most trespass cases get prosecuted as a misdemeanor.
Misdemeanor trespassing violations subject you to up to six months in a county jail and a maximum $1,000 fine. However, certain violations (for example, refusing to leave a battered woman's shelter after being asked to do so by a manager) will raise your jail exposure to one year.
If your offense doesn't rise to misdemeanor level, it may be charged as (or reduced in a plea bargain to) an infraction. For example, ignoring a "no trespassing" sign and going onto another's private property will be charged as an infraction.the first and second time. A third offense on the same property will lead to a misdemeanor filing.
Finally, if you commit a California "aggravated" criminal trespass, you face a felony charge. An aggravated trespassing takes place if you threaten to injure another seriously and (within 30 days of making that threat), unlawfully enter that person's home or workplace intending to carry out your threat. Conviction for this offense subjects you to 16 months, or two or three years in the California State Prison. Note: Such conduct may also amount to Penal Code 422 Criminal Threats and Penal Code 459 Burglary.
California Criminal Trespass: Related Charges and Plea Bargains
Trespassing charges often get filed in conjunction with burglary, California theft offenses, and California domestic violence charges (stalking, for example).
Depending on the circumstances of your arrest, criminal trespass may even be a "lesser included offense" of a burglary charge. In this situation, you can be convicted of one but not both charges.
There are other times when a trespass charge may be offered or requested during a plea bargain.
For example, your California criminal defense attorney may try to get a Penal Code 487 Grand Theft charge reduced to a mere trespass because (1) it won't invite the social stigma that a theft offense might (on an employment application, for example), (2) it's not considered a crime involving moral turpitude and (3) it typically carries a lesser sentence.
For more information or to discuss your Trespassing case, please don't hesitate to contact us. We have local criminal law offices in Rancho Cucamonga, Orange County, Van Nuys, Santa Monica, and all surrounding Southern California areas.
Legal References:
1In re Wallace, 3 Cal.3d 289, 90 Cal.Rptr. 176, 475 P.2d 208 (1970) (Held that actual damage.an obstruction or interference with the property's business.is required before a California criminal trespass charge may be sustained.)
2In re Wallace, above.
3In re Ball, (1972) 23 Cal.App.3d 380
4California Penal Code sections 552.1 and 602(o) PC. See also In re Catalano, (1981) 29 Cal.3d 1 (".union representatives performing lawful union activity at the jobsite do not violate [California Penal Code] section 602 by refusing to accede to an arbitrary request by the owner.")
5People v. Wilkinson, (1967) 56 Cal.Rptr. 261 ("Nor is it a violation to occupy without consent if the entry be made with consent.")
6People v. Wilkinson, above. ("It intended the word 'occupy' to mean a non-transient, continuous type of possession..Having in mind the legislative purpose in passing subdivision (l) of [California Penal Code] Section 602, [currently section (m)] it is rather obvious that some degree of dispossession and permanency be intended.")
7People v. Sweetser, (App. 5 Dist. 1977) 72 Cal.App.3d 278 ("Under this section, it is not sufficient merely to show that the accused wilfully entered upon the fenced lands of another without written permission and then refused to leave the land when requested to do so; it is also incumbent to prove that the accused's presence on the land constituted a trespass in the sense that he invaded another's exclusive right of possession.")
