Legal Question in Criminal Law in Pennsylvania

Deflation

I have been accused of tampering with my friend's valve stem and indirectly causing damage to his tire

The car is not actually his but is registered, tittled, tagged, and insured in his father's name.

My friend's name appears as the victim for the charge of criminal mischief for the amount of 110

The problem with this charge is that the law states that the victim suffered either a physical injury or some sort of financial loss

This was a university police officer who wrote up the charge (rent-a-cop)

My argument is simply this...

The victim does not legally own anything in this matter ;no right to press charges therefore the charge is invalid. The actual owner is in his late 40's and perfectly capable of dealing with all of this, he just choose not to.

Iv spoken to a Maryland and a PA officer about this, they agree with me that the owner has to be the one pressing the charges and not the operator of the vehicle

Now aside from this they have no whitenesses to even put me in the area, and all that they have is a GMAIL chat which I have proven in the past is not the least bit credible as evidence in another case.

I just wanted to verify that what the officer told me was true


Asked on 1/17/08, 7:45 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Gibson John W. Gibson, Esquire

Re: Deflation

I don't think the owner has to be the one to press charges on a charge of criminal mischief. You may have something of an argument with restitution if you are found guilty but for $110.00 you are better off simply paying your friend and asking him to drop the charges. It is going to cost you three times that much and maybe more for an attorney.

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Answered on 1/18/08, 1:13 pm


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