I have a couple of people who are habitual criminal trespassers at a local car wash. They are harassing the businesses customers by asking for money and offering to wash the cars for a fee. They've been getting charged with Criminal Trespass pretty consistently. I've been ramping up my plea offers 20-30 days with each subsequent offense.

They have recently begun getting aggressive with the local PD during arrests and resisting arrest chargers are coming. I need to do something is going to get these individuals attention and get them to stop trespassing at this car wash. Does anybody have any suggestions? I would love to find a way to charge these guys with a felony, but there is no way to enhance criminal trespasses that I am aware of. My gameplan right now is to offer the max on the resisting charges and proceed to jury trial with the hope that our juries will back me up after hearing about all the Defendant's priors.

It sounds like there is a need for an enhancement based on prior conviction(s) for criminal trespass at the same location.

Janette A

Could you stack sentences, or are the new offenses committed once they are finished serving other sentences? Is there enough for harassment charges as well? Would civil remedies be available (e.g., restraining order, damages for tortious interference with prospective contract, etc.)?

Consider CCP 7A.

Try one of the cases and convince a jury to max them out. It is time consuming and expensive, but it will make your point.

Experience has taught us that serial C/T offenders may be dealing with mental health issues. You may want to examine that aspect, as it's possible that treatment may be a useful tool in trying to break the cycle.

Wow, when did we get sentencing guidelines in state court? I missed that update.