Legal Question in Securities Law in California

Re: trespassing

Trespass can be either civil or criminal. Many acts can be both civil and criminal trespass, others are only one or the other.

In you case, if you are telling the truth and there are no facts or alleged facts to indicate you were engaged in some greater acts of mischief, the DA will probably be too busy with murders and armed robbery to even consider prosecuting you.

On the other hand, it is the property owner and not the DA who is in charge of whether a civil action is brought. A civil case of trespass is intended to get a court to award damages to the property owner, not to give you a fine or jail time.

Since (you say at least) you didn't do anything, the homeowner has no real damages that he can prove. You did trespass, he can sue, he might win. But with no damages, he will be awarded only "nominal" damages - i.e., maybe $1, maybe $10. Now, what kind of idiot would spend thousands on a lawyer to get a buck if he wins?

The answer is -- it occasionally happens because some people are angry and want to pursue their rights, whether it makes money sense or not.

So, you might get charged, but on the facts given, not very likely.

By the way, I doubt that your Zip code is 12345. If you don't want to give away your location, just leave it blank, don't garbage up the data base with fake numbers.