Posted on 09/02/2006 9:11:47 PM PDT by beaversmom
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Two men who took fruit and vegetables out of a garbage can have been sentenced to six months in jail, a punishment they say is harsh and the only choice they had to avoid a felony on their records.
Giles Charle, 24, of Sumersworth, N.H., and David Siller, 27, of Wayne, Pa., were on their way to the Rainbow Family's annual gathering when they were arrested in June and charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor theft.
Authorities said they took five cucumbers, four or five apricots, two bundles of asparagus spears and a handful of cherries from a garbage can at Sweet Pea Produce. The two pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing Wednesday and the felony charge was dropped.
"We didn't have any intention of committing a crime or doing anything wrong," Charle told the Steamboat Pilot & Today newspaper. "We had just come in town and we were prepared to buy groceries from a store but everything was closed."
Thousands of people were in the Steamboat Springs area at the end of June and early July for the Rainbow Family gathering north of town. At times, the relationship between members of the nomadic group and authorities was tense and a number of citations were issued.
Assistant District Attorney Kerry St. James said the men were facing the felony because they trespassed onto property without permission and took something that did not belong to them. He said the plea bargain was the suspects' decision.
"They had a choice between accepting a deferred felony with 90 days in jail or a misdemeanor conviction with six months in jail," he said. "They agreed to spend the six months in jail."
Don Wirtshafter, an attorney in Ohio who represented many Rainbow Family members over the summer, said Charle and Siller were forced to choose between two evils.
"A suspended sentence would have worked for these boys, but when a prosecutor is really going after you, the best thing you can do is plea," he said. "At best, this case is bizarre."
Charle's mother, Shaune McCarthy Charle, called the jail sentence a joke.
"It's really amazing and unbelievable how taking garbage out of a Dumpster became a felony," she said. "(St. James) is completely incorrigible."
Our society is full of parasites already. We don't need more of them. Those who don't contribute end up sucking off the rest of us.
Maybe you don't work, either, so you sympathize with their laziness.
How can an American "abuse" their freedom to travel?
Maybe you don't work, either, so you sympathize with their laziness.
This language could've come straight off a Stalin or Mao regime billboard. And I'd be facing a trip to the gulag.
That's the view of the US Supreme Court as well. Cops can search through your garbage.
The only thing that might be a stickler is that it was not on the curb but on the property. I don't know if cops can go through your garbage if it is sitting in your back yard - i doubt it as it would be trespassing.
If it's on public property, it's fair game. On private property, it isn't.
Since you probably haven't read much of the thread, I'll summarize for you...
- camping with thousands of his friends in an park area not intended for that use, depositing massive amounts of fecal matter
- defying the legal authority of national park rangers (federal officers), refusing to follow the same legitimate rules that apply to the rest of America
- committing assault and battery on rangers when displeased with legitimate directives
- placing an undue strain on the budgets of the park and the local towns and counties for increased services, such as emergency response, all arising from the above
Not at all.
Definition of apparatus extends to any device with a specific purpose, eg. a locked door.
The circumstances of the crime not only justify a charge of 3rd degree burglary as in my post 133 but the more serious charge of 2nd degree burglary, the offense for which they were rightfully arrested.
Any judge with a modicum of common sense would roll his eyes before the open court at the presentation of such a specious assertion, and then 'have a chat' with the prosecutor in-chambers.
No cigar.
I was just quibbling with your choice of words. None of that has anything to do with the right to travel.
Does it bother you that people you don't like can go where they please? I hope not.
And doing so quite well. I especially like your skill at setting up a "straw man" argument, ie. changing the word "freedom" to the word "right." The loaded question about my not wanting people I don't like to travel is another nice touch.
Well, it certainly had "exchange" value for the defendants. They were more than willing to exchange 6 months of their freedom for the unlawfully taken produce.
The crime actually charged was --
Statute text
(1) A person commits second degree burglary, if the person knowingly breaks an entrance into, enters unlawfully in, or remains unlawfully after a lawful or unlawful entry in a building or occupied structure with intent to commit therein a crime against another person or property.
(2) Second degree burglary is a class 4 felony, but it is a class 3 felony if:
(a) It is a burglary of a dwelling; or
(b) It is a burglary, the objective of which is the theft of a controlled substance, as defined in section 12-22-303 (7), C.R.S., lawfully kept within any building or occupied structure.
History
Source: L. 71: R&RE, p. 427, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 40-4-203. L. 81: (2) amended, p. 974, § 9, effective July 1; (2)(b) amended, p. 2031, § 44, effective July 14. L. 99: (1) amended, p. 327, § 3, effective July 1
Nothing in the above statute refers to value of the property in question, intrinsic or otherwise. After trespassing on private property and breaking into this business, defendants took unlawful possession of property lawfully possessed by another. That satisfies the elements.
I referred to you're def of "depository".
Still a stretch.
You win. Yeeesh!!
"And the sign said, Anybody caught dumpster-divin'
Would be locked up tight
So I hopped over the fence and I grabbed me some grub
As if to say, 'What gives you the right
To keep all us hippies fenced outside
Or to keep all the veggies in?'
If Abbie Hoffman was here, he'd tell you to your face
'Man, you're some kinda sinner'
Whoa-oh, sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind
Do this, don't do that, can't you read the si-ign?"
Sorry, I just had to. In all seriousness, there are still thousands of hippies roaming the countryside? In 2006? Did I miss something? Is that what Mark Steyn has called, "the aging of the dawn of Aquarius"?
Very good!
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