Legal Question in Criminal Law in Colorado

Criminal trespassing - charges question

Some friends and I got a 2nd degree criminal trespassing ticket last November. When we went to our first court date, the DA didn't give us any option but to plead guilty or not guilty, we all pleaded not guilty.

One of the four of us (we'll call him Joe), has a long criminal history. Joe had spoken to his lawyer, whom said it would be a good idea to take pictures of the area as there were no signs or fences saying ''No Trespassing''. So we did.

So we went back today, and the three of us, not including Joe, went for our other court date. We printed out the pictures, and had them ready to go. The DA gave us no other choice but to either go in front of the judge or take 24 hours of community service, and we would have a deferred charge (or whatever its called, the case would be dropped on 3/7/07). I told him we had pictures, and he said that didn't matter. We crossed people's yards and a golf course to get there. He wouldn't even pay attention to me when I talked to him. So we all took this charge, but Joe got the charges dismissed. He had his lawyer, but the DA looked at our criminal history first and gave us this option, and the rest of us don't have anything on our record. Is there anything we can do about this?


Asked on 3/07/06, 9:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Fenaughty FENAUGHTY & ASSOCIATES, PC

Re: Criminal trespassing - charges question

What you can do depends on what you mean by "[S]o we all took this charge..." You're email shows much confusion about the matter. It seems you showed some pictures to Opposing counsel. Why? Did the opposing counsel also expose his/her complete evidence against you? Even so, you have the right to present evidence to an impartial third party(a jury). The DA would not pay attention to you because you presented evidence that would ruin his/her case against you. The DA's purpose is get you to plead guilty. They are not there to determine what is "fair." They are there to get you to plead guilty. I hope you did not do that. If you fell for his/her story and pleaded guilty, your options are very limited, and the cost will be very high. From your story it appears that the one defendant who had counsel got the charges dismissed. The defendants who did not, did not. In the future, get help before it is too late. For now, if you did not plead guilty, get help.

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Answered on 3/08/06, 9:29 am


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