Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Michigan

If a person is trespassing, the police have the right to issue a ticket. How long the person was trespassing is not relevant to the question of "if" the person was trespassing. The fact that police saw the person trespassing allows the police to write the ticket.

It is apparent that this person was not on his own property and that he did not have permission to be there.

The only other reason that trespass would not be actionable, is if it was somehow necessary (a matter of life or death) for this person to wander around a shut down insane asylum for 20 minutes. This is not likely.

I agree with Shelly. You can also try to avoid a criminal record on this misdemeanor. If you are in metro Detroit, contact me at kliszlaw.com to discuss. Tim Klisz