I've got a question regarding choice of charging language. Defendant lives out in a rural section of the county, on property that has a couple trailer houses on it- some are lived in, some have utilities, some both, some neither. On a trip out to read one of the meters, the water district employee notices a water box has been tampered with. It's been broken open, the supply-side pipe cut, and a tap put in the line to bypass the meter. There's evidence this has been going on for several months (water flow to the area, the fact that the trenched over line is now covered with grass, etc). Water district estimates that the total value of the bills they've missed out on is $300.

So the question is how do I charge this? is it theft of water? Theft of services? Anyone have any recommendations?

Criminal mischief deals directly with tampering with a utility. Check out 28.03(b)(3)(B) for water. It will be a class A.

Oddly enough it is PC 28.03 Criminal Mischief Class A Misdemeanor see (b)(3) and (c)

You guys rule.

I thought about criminal mischief, but didn't anticipate the ledge having singled this situation out. Your help is always appreciated.

Hey Brody! How are you? This is Trevor from your group at Baby Prosecutor School.

I had a similar situation come up just recently, only with electricity being stolen.

This is also Theft of Services. PC 31.01 (5) defines services as "(B) telecommunication, public utility, or transportation service". I know that's only a Class B misdemeanor with your amount of stolen water, but it's another option for you.

Would make for an interesting game show. Unusual fact patterns. See who can pick the correct penal code provision.

Eric, wouldn't this make for an interesting new training? Clay, couldn't you use your fancy transponders to make it happen? Amazing prizes. Could have an entire tournament with teams. Maybe this thing could go national. Then, TV. Royalties to the Foundation for Jennifer. And we are all rich, rich, rich!

Amazing prizes like TDCAA dominos? That would be worth playing for.

Hey Trevor! Thanks for the help. I've been meaning to get back to this thread, but trials last week and next prevented it.

We ended up filing with the criminal mischief, in part because of difficulties in proving valuation. Doing it that way made the whole process much simpler.

Hope everything's well with you- send me an email sometime to let me know how things are going.

-Brody