Trespassing

California’s Trespass Law Is Not One Offense

Penal Code § 602 contains dozens of subdivisions, each describing different conduct with different requirements. What you were charged under matters more than most people realize.

The Most Common Version — Notice and Refusal

The version most people face requires that you entered or remained on property and refused to leave after being asked by the owner, the owner’s agent, or a person in lawful possession.

That’s two separate things the prosecution has to prove:

1. A request to leave was made by someone with authority to make it
2. You refused or failed to leave after that request

A security guard with no authority over the space, a request that was never clearly made, an employee acting outside their role, or no reasonable opportunity to comply — each of these undermines the charge.

PC § 602.8 — Fenced or Cultivated Land

For entering land that is fenced or under cultivation without permission, a first offense is an infraction — not a misdemeanor, and not a criminal conviction in the ordinary sense. Subsequent offenses escalate.

If you were charged with a misdemeanor for conduct that fits this subdivision, that’s worth examining.

PC § 602.5 — Entering a Residence

Entering or remaining in a noncommercial dwelling without consent. Penalties increase where someone was present in the residence at the time.

PC § 601 — Aggravated Trespass

This one is a wobbler, and most people have never heard of it.

Aggravated trespass applies where a person makes a credible threat to cause serious bodily injury to another, and then within 30 days enters that person’s residence or workplace without lawful purpose, intending to carry out the threat.

Because it’s a wobbler, it can be charged as a felony — which puts it in an entirely different category from ordinary trespass.

Trespass and Burglary

This matters for two different readers.

If you’re charged with trespass, understand what separates it from burglary: intent at the moment of entry. Burglary under Penal Code § 459 requires that you entered intending to commit theft or another felony. Trespass doesn’t require any criminal intent beyond being somewhere you weren’t permitted to be.

If you’re charged with burglary, trespass is frequently where these cases land. Where the prosecution can’t prove intent at entry — and intent is almost always circumstantial — a negotiated reduction to trespass takes a potential strike offense down to a misdemeanor.

That reduction is one of the most valuable outcomes available in a burglary case.

→ Burglary Defense

How These Cases Arise

• Retail and business premises after being banned or asked not to return
• Apartment complexes and common areas, particularly where someone no longer lives there or is visiting a resident
• Former shared residences, after a breakup or separation, where the question of who has a right to be there is genuinely unresolved
• Protests and demonstrations
• Construction sites, vacant property, and posted land
• Hotels, parking structures, and private lots
• Encampment and public space enforcement

Several of these involve a real dispute about whether permission existed, not a clear-cut intrusion.

Penalties

Most PC § 602 violations are misdemeanors, carrying county jail exposure, fines, and probation.

Certain subdivisions are infractions — including a first offense under § 602.8.

Aggravated trespass under § 601 is a wobbler with felony exposure.

Why a Misdemeanor Here Isn’t Nothing

• A permanent criminal record appearing on background checks
• Housing applications, particularly where the charge involved a residence
• Employment, especially in security, retail, and any role involving property access
• Immigration consequences for non-citizens
• Restitution where property was damaged
• Frequently accompanied by a stay-away order

Defenses to Trespass Charges

You were never asked to leave. The core defense in most cases. If no one with authority told you to leave, the most commonly charged version of the offense isn’t satisfied.

The person asking had no authority. A request has to come from the owner, their agent, or someone in lawful possession. Not every employee, neighbor, or security guard qualifies.

You had permission. Express or implied. And permission from one person with authority is generally sufficient — a tenant can admit a guest regardless of what the landlord prefers.

Implied consent. A business open to the public extends implied permission to enter during business hours. That permission can be revoked, but until it is, entry isn’t trespass.

You had a right to be there. This comes up constantly in former-shared-residence cases, disputes over tenancy, and situations involving a lease or ownership interest. Where you genuinely had a legal right to be present, there’s no trespass.

Claim of right. An honest belief that you were permitted to be there — even a mistaken one — undermines the required mental state for many versions of the offense.

You weren’t given a reasonable chance to leave. Where someone is arrested immediately after being told to leave, the refusal element may not be established.

Necessity or emergency. Entering to avoid a greater harm, to seek help, or in an emergency.

Mistaken identity or wrong location. Property lines are frequently unmarked, and boundaries are genuinely unclear in many settings.

Resolving the Case Without a Conviction

Dismissal, where the notice-and-refusal element can’t be proven.

Reduction to an infraction, which isn’t a criminal conviction.

Diversion, available in many jurisdictions for first-time misdemeanors, ending in dismissal on completion.

Civil compromise under Penal Code § 1377, where property damage was involved and the owner has been made whole.

Expungement, where a conviction has already occurred. → Expungements

For a first offense with no record, a conviction is not the expected outcome when the case is actually defended.

Why a Former Prosecutor Matters

Trespass is a high-volume, low-priority charge. Reports are short, review is quick, and most defendants plead at arraignment.

Polina Logrue reviewed cases like these at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. She knows which reports establish the notice-and-refusal element and which ones assume it, when a charge fits a subdivision carrying lesser penalties, and what the office will agree to for a first-time defendant.

She also handles the cases where trespass is the destination rather than the charge — negotiating burglary allegations down to trespass, which is where the real value is in a property case.

Meet Polina →

Charged With Trespassing? Do This

1. Don’t plead guilty at arraignment to get it over with. It’s a misdemeanor conviction.
2. Write down exactly what happened — who asked you to leave, what they said, whether they identified their authority, and how much time passed before police arrived.
3. Identify who gave you permission, if anyone did. A resident, a tenant, an employee, a prior arrangement.
4. Preserve any evidence of permission — texts, emails, a lease, a guest list, prior visits.
5. Note the property details — whether it was fenced, posted, open to the public, or unmarked.
6. Check what subdivision you were charged under. It’s on the paperwork and it changes the analysis.
7. Call before your court date.

Call (949) 758-4469 · Free Consultation

Related Charges

• Burglary — Penal Code § 459, where trespass is a common reduction
• Vandalism — Penal Code § 594, frequently charged alongside
• Public Intoxication — Penal Code § 647(f), another common companion charge
• Restraining Orders — where a stay-away order is involved
• Theft & Property Crimes
• Expungements