michelleharris1
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Oregon
My 13 year old son and his friend went onto an abandoned commercial property that was fenced and had no trespassing signs up. The fence had areas where many other people have used to also go onto the property. On the property is an old rusty 75 foot crane and the boys climbed up into the crane and were checking it out and the windows were broke so they were dropping some of the broken glass down and watching it smash below. Long story short the police were called and my son and his friend were very compliant and the officers proceeded to arrest them cuff them and charge them with criminal trespass II. The property owner was contacted and also said he was interested in pressing the charge.
My son has never ever been in trouble like this before, he is a peer leader in his school gets high admiration from his teachers for how responsible and mature he acts and his grades are A's and B's. What will this do to his chances for obtaining a part time after school job and his desire to go to the high school of his choosing now that he has a "criminal record"? Is there anyway we can get the charge dropped? It just seems so ridiculous to take a kid who has never been trouble and make an example of him when the property is mostly used by vagrants and burglarized by metal thieves for meth. My son and his friend could have been sternly warned about how dangerous what they were doing was and they would have been so scared about being scolded by a police officer they would have never gone back there. Handcuffs, community service, a criminal record, and the monetary damage we may be forced to pay seems very excessive for a couple of 13 year olds just doing what boys have done for decades...EXPLORING!!!
My 13 year old son and his friend went onto an abandoned commercial property that was fenced and had no trespassing signs up. The fence had areas where many other people have used to also go onto the property. On the property is an old rusty 75 foot crane and the boys climbed up into the crane and were checking it out and the windows were broke so they were dropping some of the broken glass down and watching it smash below. Long story short the police were called and my son and his friend were very compliant and the officers proceeded to arrest them cuff them and charge them with criminal trespass II. The property owner was contacted and also said he was interested in pressing the charge.
My son has never ever been in trouble like this before, he is a peer leader in his school gets high admiration from his teachers for how responsible and mature he acts and his grades are A's and B's. What will this do to his chances for obtaining a part time after school job and his desire to go to the high school of his choosing now that he has a "criminal record"? Is there anyway we can get the charge dropped? It just seems so ridiculous to take a kid who has never been trouble and make an example of him when the property is mostly used by vagrants and burglarized by metal thieves for meth. My son and his friend could have been sternly warned about how dangerous what they were doing was and they would have been so scared about being scolded by a police officer they would have never gone back there. Handcuffs, community service, a criminal record, and the monetary damage we may be forced to pay seems very excessive for a couple of 13 year olds just doing what boys have done for decades...EXPLORING!!!
