Well, as John says, it’s not black or white. I am assuming the entering is intentional in my previous comment since the context is that of kids breaking into an empty house, but there are a lot of reasons, and situations that are not clear. Land is different than houses. A house that is clearly abandoned is different from a house that is momentarily empty. A six-year-old who enters an empty house is different than an 18 year old. You get my point.
You put no trespassing signs up to remove the uncertainty, but that doesn’t mean that anyone can go anywhere that doesn’t have one. I have no trespassing / no hunting signs on the boundaries of my property because someone could be walking through the woods from the other direction and not know they are entering my property. I don’t have one next to my front door because it is presumed that someone entering my home without permission did so intentionally and knows they are committing a crime. In the rare cases that John and Leon bring up (someone drunk who meant, and did, no harm), I would be no more interested in pressing charges than the commonwealth attorney would be to prosecute. But I’d probably be sure my doors were always locked afterward. After this thread, I’ll also be sure to lock my doors if I know that Oliver will be in the area! J Rob From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 5:48 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] [SUN]: Prospect Wall charged with breaking and entering then why are people required to post "no trespassing" signs on their land and abandon houses? Seems like that would be redundant. Seems to me that if land (or in this case a house) is abandoned - and there are no trespassing signs posted - then it can't be breaking and entering. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [gatortalk] Re: [gatornews] [SUN]: Prospect Wall charged with breaking and entering From: "Rob Alexander" <[email protected]> Date: Tue, May 05, 2009 10:14 pm To: <[email protected]> Are you saying that, if you leave your front door unlocked, and a stranger walks into your home, that it is not trespass unless you posted signs? Of course, not. You are trespassing if you enter a dwelling without permission of the owner. In this case, breaking and entering is what they did, but breaking and entering is not the crime itself, it is an element of a crime. And they did do that. It does not require you to ‘break’ anything in the sense of doing damage; even opening an unlocked door, or pushing a door further open, counts as the ‘breaking’ part. If you ‘break and enter’ with the intent to commit a crime, then you have committed burglary, a felony. If you ‘break and enter’ without the intent to commit a crime, then you have committed trespass, a misdemeanor. It seems pretty clear that these guys did the latter and that’s what they’ve been charged with. As has been said before, most of us have probably done that with an empty house sometime in our lives. I was considerably younger than Wall the last time I did, but while it was a boneheaded thing to do, it’s not like it makes him a hardened criminal. It would probably be a good time for him to start growing up, though. Rob From: [email protected] [ <mailto:[email protected]> mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 5:26 AM To: gatortalk googlegroups Subject: [gatortalk] RE: [gatornews] [SUN]: Prospect Wall charged with breaking and entering This story is big up here in Raleigh - but makes no sense. The cops admit he did not break in and he did not steal anything. How can it be "breaking and entering"? If the house had posted no trespassing signs - then it could be trespassing. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Prospect Wall charged with breaking and entering From: "Shane Ford" <[email protected]> Date: Mon, May 04, 2009 7:44 pm To: [email protected] (GatorNEWS) Prospect Wall charged with breaking and entering The Associated Press Published: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 5:17 p.m. Last Modified: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 5:17 p.m. RALEIGH, N.C. — One of the Gators' and the nation’s most sought-after basketball recruits has been charged with a misdemeanor breaking and entering after police found him walking out of a vacant house in North Carolina, police said Monday. John Wall, 18, was detained briefly April 27 in Raleigh, but not arrested. He and two other teenagers were cited. Police said there was no indication of forced entry at the empty house or that anything was taken. Wall, a point guard at Raleigh Word of God, was voted The Associated Press men’s prep basketball player of the year for North Carolina in March. He has not announced a college choice, but has been pursued by Florida, Duke, North Carolina State, Kansas, Memphis, Miami, Kentucky, among others. Frank Jackson, an assistant district attorney in Wake County, which includes Raleigh, said a person convicted of such an offense could face up to 120 days in jail. But he said a first-time offender would likely have to perform community service. A call to Wall’s home in Raleigh found the phone was disconnected. His mother didn’t have a listed phone number, and message to the school’s athletic director wasn’t immediately returned. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
