Trespassing in Santa Clarita is an interesting crime. California Penal Code 602 PC outlines a variety of circumstances under which someone can be arrested for trespassing. Some of those circumstances are pretty straightforward, such as intentionally entering someone else’s private property without their permission or consent, while others can be rather strange – like taking oysters or shellfish off of someone else’s land.
While the definition of what it means to trespass is rather complicated in California law, there are a few criteria that need to be met for someone to be charged with it:
- One must willfully enter someone else’s property
- They must do so with the specific intent to interfere with that person’s property rights or business
- They actually do interfere with the owner’s property rights or business
Most of the time when someone is arrested for trespassing, the charge will be an infraction or a misdemeanor. However, it can sometimes be charged as a felony. When someone is charged with violating California Penal Code 602 PC at the infraction or misdemeanor level, it isn’t likely they’ll need bail. Infractions carry a $75 fine for the first-offense and $250 for the second offense.
For felony-level trespassing offenses (and sometimes for misdemeanor offenses), the defendant will be taken to the SCV Sheriff Station to undergo booking and processing. Once the process is complete, bail will be set and it will be possible to bail them out directly from the Santa Clarita Sheriff Station jail if the bail bond process is begun soon enough after they are arrested. If the bail process hasn’t begun by about 72 hours after the defendant was arrested, they’ll likely need to be bailed out from one of the larger jails in downtown Los Angeles.