Legal Advice Needed

[tigershoops31]

A female friend of mine got into a fight with her roommate this week. Girl drama: they were best friends and now are not speaking. They had been sharing a bathroom in the other girl's room, but since the fight the other girl got a new lock put on her room door. Well apparently this week my friend started to have a migraine and realized that her medicine is in her roommate's bathroom and her roommate isn't there. She tried to get the lock opened, and in the process the lock jammed.

The other girl came back and called the police on her. The police got both sides of it, and my friend offered to pay for a new doorknob. The officer assumed that would do it, but now the other girl wants to press charges for "5th degree criminal mischief" and the officer said they'd have to send it on to the county attorney.

Am I wrong to assume the roommate wouldn't be able to get any more than a new doorknob and have to pay some lawyer fees? It seems to me that since the migraine medicine was her property and it was in her apartment there wouldn't really be anything there. Any lawyers here have any advice for her? Thanks!

 

[cyfan964]

A female friend of mine got into a fight with her roommate this week. Girl drama: they were best friends and now are not speaking. They had been sharing a bathroom in the other girl's room, but since the fight the other girl got a new lock put on her room door. Well apparently this week my friend started to have a migraine and realized that her medicine is in her roommate's bathroom and her roommate isn't there. She tried to get the lock opened, and in the process the lock jammed.

The other girl came back and called the police on her. The police got both sides of it, and my friend offered to pay for a new doorknob. The officer assumed that would do it, but now the other girl wants to press charges for "5th degree criminal mischief" and the officer said they'd have to send it on to the county attorney.

Am I wrong to assume the roommate wouldn't be able to get any more than a new doorknob and have to pay some lawyer fees? It seems to me that since the migraine medicine was her property and it was in her apartment there wouldn't really be anything there. Any lawyers here have any advice for her? Thanks!

Lawyer up. I don't know the whole story, but unless the other girl is psycho there had to be something else your friend did to deserve this. If she is that crazy she should move out.

Also, if you havin' girl problems I feel bad for you son.

 

[whirlybirds]

A few rounds of foxy boxing will settle all of their problems. She might have a case against the city since the officers didn't bring it up.

 

[Rabbuk]

Men can punch their friends in the jaw in a drunken squabble and laugh about it the next day. It's a shame the fairer sex does not have this trait.

 

[kilgore_trout]

are you sure the roommate didn't steal the prescription medication from your friend and lock it up in her room?

no way does the da does anything with this.

 

[CyCrazy]

Tiggers I thought you were better than this.....

 

[cowgirl836]

oh the joys of female roommates.................I moved in with random girls one year (bad idea) and one girl (the only one I really talked to) moved out by Christmas because she (and I) couldn't stand the third. The third then used the vacant room to let her jailbird boyfriend's DRUG DEALER friend stay in the room for a weekend. Among other things. The fourth girl was friends with the third, but was terrified of her.

If your friend is telling the whole truth......then her former bestie is a psycho. I can't see the police taking that seriously.

 

[Clonehomer]

I would definitely go with the stealing of prescription drugs route. That is a much stricter charge than fifth degree criminal mischief. If nothing else, the threat of that charge should cause the original to go away. If your GF were to prove that this was shared space that the roommate was restricting access to then the roommate would be the one to be charged. It all comes down to who can convince the courts what the arrangement was with the space in the original agreement.

To look at it another way, if a couple gets divorced and one member changes all the locks on a house they share, is that legal? I would think that would result in some sort of theft charge.

 

[tigershoops31]

Tiggers I thought you were better than this.....

No you didn't

It's a girl that coached for me a couple years ago and even though I didn't think there was anything they could really do about it I told her I'd try to get some advice for her on CF...not from you though :tongue:

 

[Wesley]

What is your gf using for a bathroom now?

 

[stevefrench]

A female friend of mine got into a fight with her roommate this week. Girl drama: they were best friends and now are not speaking. They had been sharing a bathroom in the other girl's room, but since the fight the other girl got a new lock put on her room door. Well apparently this week my friend started to have a migraine and realized that her medicine is in her roommate's bathroom and her roommate isn't there. She tried to get the lock opened, and in the process the lock jammed.

The other girl came back and called the police on her. The police got both sides of it, and my friend offered to pay for a new doorknob. The officer assumed that would do it, but now the other girl wants to press charges for "5th degree criminal mischief" and the officer said they'd have to send it on to the county attorney.

Am I wrong to assume the roommate wouldn't be able to get any more than a new doorknob and have to pay some lawyer fees? It seems to me that since the migraine medicine was her property and it was in her apartment there wouldn't really be anything there. Any lawyers here have any advice for her? Thanks!

I'm sorry. you're going to have to kill your roommate. I see no other way. watch a minimum of 15 episodes of forensic files and you'll be sure to get away with it.

 

[AllBig12Drinker]

Tell them to scissor, everything will then be fine.

 

[GrindingAway]

Why can't they settle this with by stripping to their bra and panties and having a tickle/pillow fight like normal women?

(That is how normal women settle things, right? Please tell me I'm right.)

(Also did you really expect a serious response?)

 

[Wesley]

Use rubber gloves the next time she deides to break the door handle. Claim poor maintenance.

 

[tigershoops31]

I would definitely go with the stealing of prescription drugs route. That is a much stricter charge than fifth degree criminal mischief. If nothing else, the threat of that charge should cause the original to go away. If your GF were to prove that this was shared space that the roommate was restricting access to then the roommate would be the one to be charged. It all comes down to who can convince the courts what the arrangement was with the space in the original agreement.

To look at it another way, if a couple gets divorced and one member changes all the locks on a house they share, is that legal? I would think that would result in some sort of theft charge.

Thanks not a bad idea...the way I understand it it's the 2 of them and a guy that live in a 3 bedroom place. The other girl had the master bedroom with a bathroom in it so they had shared that and gave the guy his own bathroom. After the fight she had been sharing the "community bathroom" with the guy.

 

[Steve]

You might not like hearing this, but I'll share the experience of an acquintance of mine.

What started as a platonic, I'll rent the extra room situation, turned into something more which turned into jealousy which turned into an order to vacate and a restraining order. Who couldn't have seen that one coming? Both parties probably shared in the blame, but the one who had their name on the lease had all of the clout when it came to the authorities.

The guy was eventually able to convince the lease holder to allow a 3rd party access to the unit to retrive his personal property. The saying that possession is nine tenths of the law seemed to be the prevailing attitude.

 

[peteypie]

Why can't they settle this with by stripping to their bra and panties and having a tickle/pillow fight like normal women?

(That is how normal women settle things, right? Please tell me I'm right.)

(Also did you really expect a serious response?)

Wow, this is ok, but my post was deleted? Pass the beer nuts.

 

[CycloneRulzzz]

It's amazing what people will fight and sue over these days. good grief.

 

[gardner]

Not a criminal lawyer, but:

county attorney hopefully has other real criminal issues to deal with besides a damaged lock/door knob. He/she will try to get it resolved easily (pay a fine, go away).

GF could push back and say the damage wasn't intentional. That is an element of the crime. No intent=no crime. Or, details are sketchy, but if there was a prior agreement for joint access, she could argue that she still was entitled to access and thus had a right to gain access to the bathroom.

 

[PhillipJCY]

The charge is criminal mischief in the 5th degree and that is the charge the CA will have to go with, but there are some factors that probably could decide the punishment for this "crime". The first has been mentioned and that is the issue of a joint agreement to share the bathroom space before the argument. The best argument for the defendant would be something in writing that states that they agreed to share this space when they signed the lease. If that wasn't done then the next best thing would be for the male roommate to corroborate the story that the two females have shared that space before the fight. If he is willing to do that then a judge might order the replacement of the doorknob and be done with it.

Another factor that I didn't see is whether or not the medication was prescribed by a physician or if it is an OTC medication. I am assuming it is prescription because most people would go purchase or have someone else purchase the same OTC counter medication. If it is a prescription medication then the defendant would have a better case as to why she needed to try to break into the room to retrieve it. If the plaintiff knew it was a prescription and had knowledge that she was depriving the defendant of her property then the judge may side with the defendant and have the plaintiff pay for damages.

Those were just a couple of thoughts that came to mind. I'm not a lawyer though so take the above with a big grain of salt.