Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

My husband owns a building company. I, wife make the decisions for the company. The neighbor next to our model home doesn�t like me because I made a recent decision she didn�t like. neighbor has threatened me to make me pay. She has barred us from entering her property. Neighbor bot a vacant lot in rear of two properties. A access road/driveway goes through both properties to get to the lot. We have always maintained it and hydroseeded it because we never knew of the road until final survey. My husband was cutting the grass/road (it doesn�t look like a road it is a beautiful piece of ground blending into our lot.) and I was pulling weeds and neighbor was in trees taking picture of me and called 911. i was arrested and now have to be fingerprinted which is humiliating. My husband took a picture of me and police officer with dog in one hand and weeds in the other, certainly not criminal behavior. To date neighbor installed cameras pointing them at our house. Question: police filed the criminal complaint, not the neighbor. Who will be at the preliminary hearing, the neighbor?, the police? 2. can the magistrate throw it out if he finds it frivolous? 3. do I get to discuss the problem that originally started this neighbor harassing me.


Asked on 8/07/09, 11:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Someone called and said you were trespassing. The police make no decisions as to that, the only question is, did they need to actually arrest you. If their guidelines are to arrest and process, they ALWAYS handcuff, no exceptions. Police file the complaint, not the person making the call. Trespass is a statutory offense, when you go on the property of another w/o permission, or an allowed "excuse", like necessity. There are MANY questions any attorney would need before advising you. First, I suggest you speak with the prosecutor, to see what he has to say, and if he is going to prosecute (he can refuse). If he is going to prosecute, ask him why, make notes, and, if he has some info wrong, ask him if you can prove "X" to him if he would still prosecute (he may have some bad information). If he says yes, take your notes to an attorney. Take the property surveys, deeds, write out the chronology, take anything you have to him/her. - Good luck.

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Answered on 8/14/09, 10:33 am


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