Criminal Defense | Trespassing

An individual may be charged with trespassing in New Jersey under a variety of circumstances:

• Entering onto a neighbor’s property in order to retrieve something.
• Re-entering or remaining in a bar or nightclub after having been asked by the owners or their representatives to leave the premises.
• Entering onto school property unwelcomed.
• Entering onto private property and operating an off-road vehicle on that property.
• Entering onto farmland.
• Entering onto the property of a utility company.
• Peering through a window (which is considered a form of trespassing because it invades the privacy of the people on the other side of the windows).     

Committing any of these acts, and countless others not mentioned here, could result in a charge of trespassing being entered against you.  If you have been charged with trespassing you need an experienced NJ criminal defense attorney to represent you.  Trespassing in Ocean County and Monmouth County is often discovered, owing to the increased vigilance of property owners accustomed to dealing with trespassers in the summer months. 

A trespassing charge is not to be taken lightly. If you have been charged with trespassing, give yourself the best chance of a favorable outcome by retaining the services of an experienced New Jersey criminal defense lawyer familiar with Ocean County and Monmouth County.

The criminal attorneys at the law firm of Villani & DeLuca, P.C., which is headquartered in Point Pleasant Beach, Ocean County, New Jersey, have been defending clients charged with criminal offenses in the New Jersey for more than 18 years.

An experienced Villani & DeLuca, P.C. criminal defense attorney will consider the facts of your case in light of the law, and devise an effective defense strategy. The New Jersey statute that covers trespassing in New Jersey provides, in limited circumstances, for affirmative defenses to the charge of trespassing. A charge of trespassing is not to be taken lightly. Don’t gamble with your future.

Call the experienced NJ criminal defense lawyers at Villani & DeLuca, P.C., today at 732-892-9050 or contact us.

You owe it to your future.

N.J.S.A. 2C:18-3. Unlicensed entry of structures; defiant trespasser; peering into places; defenses

a. Unlicensed entry of structures.  A person commits an offense if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or surreptitiously remains in any research facility, structure, or separately secured or occupied portion thereof, or in or upon utility company property.  An offense under this subsection is a crime of the fourth degree if it is committed in a school or on school property.  The offense is a crime of the fourth degree if it is committed in a dwelling.  An offense under this section is a crime of the fourth degree if it is committed in a research facility, power generation facility, waste treatment facility, public sewage facility, water treatment facility, public water facility, nuclear electric generating plant or any facility which stores, generates or handles any hazardous chemical or chemical compounds.  An offense under this subsection is a crime of the fourth degree if it is committed in or upon utility company property.  Otherwise it is a disorderly persons offense.

b. Defiant trespasser.  A person commits a petty disorderly persons offense if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he enters or remains in any place as to which notice against trespass is given by:

(1) Actual communication to the actor; or

(2) Posting in a manner prescribed by law or reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders; or

(3) Fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to exclude intruders.

c. Peering into windows or other openings of dwelling places. A person commits a crime of the fourth degree if, knowing that he is not licensed or privileged to do so, he peers into a window or other opening of a dwelling or other structure adapted for overnight accommodation for the purpose of invading the privacy of another person and under circumstances in which a reasonable person in the dwelling or other structure would not expect to be observed.

d. Defenses.  It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that:

(1) A structure involved in an offense under subsection a. was abandoned;

(2) The structure was at the time open to members of the public and the actor complied with all lawful conditions imposed on access to or remaining in the structure; or

(3) The actor reasonably believed that the owner of the structure, or other person empowered to license access thereto, would have licensed him to enter or remain, or, in the case of subsection c. of this section, to peer.

amended 1980, c.112, s.3; 1994, c.90; 1995, c.20, s.4; 1997, c.15; 2005, c.100; 2009, c.283, s.3.
 
2C:18-4. Lands defined
As used in this act, "lands" means agricultural or horticultural lands devoted to the production for sale of plants and animals useful to man, encompassing plowed or tilled fields, standing crops or their residues, cranberry bogs and appurtenant dams, dikes, canals, ditches and pump houses, including impoundments, man-made reservoirs and the adjacent shorelines thereto, orchards, nurseries, and lands with a maintained fence for the purpose of restraining domestic livestock. "Lands" shall also include lands in agricultural use, as defined in section 3 of P.L.1983, c. 32 (C. 4:1C-13), where public notice prohibiting trespass is given by actual communication to the actor, conspicuous posting, or fencing or other enclosure manifestly designed to exclude intruders.

L.1983, c. 522, s. 1, eff. Jan. 17, 1984.

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