see post #27.
nuisances.usalegal.gov
Criminal penalties
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A public nuisance is a crime against the order and economy of a state. The following is an example of a state statute explaining places and persons constituting the offense of public nuisance, for which a criminal prosecution can be initiated.
1. Every place:
wherein any fighting between people or animals or birds shall be conducted; or
wherein any intoxicating liquors are kept for unlawful use, sale or distribution;
where vagrants resort;
and
2. Every act unlawfully done and every omission to perform a duty, which act or omission that:
annoy, injure or endanger the safety, health, comfort, or repose of any considerable number of persons;
offend public decency;
unlawfully interfere with, befoul, obstruct, or tend to obstruct, or render dangerous for passage, a lake, navigable river, bay, stream, canal or basin, or a public park, square, street, alley, highway, or municipal transit vehicle or station; or
in any way render a considerable number of persons insecure in life or the use of property[v].
Acts of public indecency, such as lewdness, exhibiting obscene pictures, standing naked on a balcony in a public place, conspiring to place a young woman in possession of another for purposes of prostitution, casting a dead body into a river, and the publication of an indecent book are indictable and punishable at common law because they outrage public decency and are injurious[vi].
In a nuisance committed by a tenant, the landlord is not liable for the independent criminal act of a tenant in the erection or continuance of a public nuisance. However, the landlord is liable for an action for damages for the erection or continuance of a private nuisance, either by himself, his/ her agents, or tenants, whereby private individuals are injured.[vii]
An indictment will lie for the erection or continuance of a nuisance or an unlawful obstruction on a public highway. All common and public nuisances, which aggrieve, annoy, or impair the common rights of the community must be punished criminally by indictment[viii].
Counties, municipalities, and other governing bodies in the prosecution of governmental functions are liable for damages resulting from the operation and maintenance of nuisances. A corporation is even criminally liable and can be prosecuted independently of the fact that the criminal act was performed by means of agents[ix]. A corporation is indictable for committing a public nuisance, whether the committing of the act involves nonfeasance or misfeasance[x].
In an action for a public nuisance, any evidence that tends to prove the defendant’s guilt of the offense charged is admissible. One need not have a criminal intent to make him guilty of committing a nuisance.
In an attempt to escape liability, a defendant can argue that a particular legislation authorizes his/her activity. However, legislative authority will not excuse a defendant from liability when the conduct is unreasonable.
However, a defendant cannot escape liability by arguing that others also contributed to the harm.
When a state does not prescribe punishment for a particular nuisance, the punishment is the one prescribed by statute for common-law offenses. Additionally, a person convicted for maintaining a nuisance of a continuing character is generally ordered to abate the nuisance together with a fine and imprisonment.
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