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In our ongoing series of articles on New York penal law, we’ve given you a more direct look at how the law works, without all of the dry legalese you’d expect from reading up on things like this. In today’s post, we’re going to take a look at what the law says about criminal mischief and tampering. Let’s start off with criminal mischief in the fourth degree.
In order to be guilty of this crime, you’d have to intentionally damage someone else’s property or somehow participate in destroying an abandoned building. You could also recklessly damage someone else’s property in an amount that’s greater than $250. Criminal mischief in the fourth degree is considered a class A misdemeanor.
If you damage the property of someone in a total amount that’s greater than $250, and you had the intention to do this damage, you’re guilty of criminal mischief in the third degree. This one is a class E felony.
Now we’re getting into more serious territory. If you go ahead and damage someone’s property in a total amount that’s greater than $1,500, you’re guilty of this crime, and will be looking at a class D felony.
The most serious offense under criminal mischief is when you damage someone else’s property by using an explosive device. This particular crime will have you looking at a class B felony.
For the purpose of being clear about all of this, the term “property of another” basically includes all of the property that someone has ownership of, whether or not the person who damages the property also has an ownership interest in the property.
To be guilty of the least serious offense of criminal tampering, you’d have to tamper with someone else’s property while intending to cause inconvenience to either that person or someone else. Again, intent to do the tampering is key here. This one’s a class B misdemeanor.
For the second degree of criminal tampering, this corresponds to tampering with the connection for gas, electric, or other kinds of utilities. There is an affirmative defense for this, however. That involves you not engaging in this behavior for the purpose of larceny, or any other kind of wrong purpose. This crime is a class A misdemeanor.
Now the first degree of criminal tampering is when you tamper with one of those utilities we talked about, and then cause a great deal of impairment of the service. This crime is thought to be a class D felony.
We’re now shifting from tampering over to cemetery desecration. You’d be guilty of this crime if you damage any property that’s been maintained as some sort of plot or grave in a cemetery, with the intent to do so. This is a class A misdemeanor.
The most serious level of cemetery desecration is when you damage a burial plot or grave in a total amount that’s greater than $250. This bumps you up into a class E felony.
If you recklessly engage in some kind of conduct that creates a high risk of damage to someone else’s property in a total amount that’s greater than $250, you’ve committed reckless endangerment of property. This is a class B misdemeanor.
Jumping back to cemetery desecration, this is when you open a casket or some other type of vessel that holds a corpse and then remove some part of the remains. Aggravated cemetery desecration in the second degree is a class E felony.
As you might’ve guessed, this more serious offense involves committing that last crime we talked about, but then also having been convicted for the same crime in the last five years, or this crime. Aggravated cemetery desecration in the first degree is considered a class D felony.
If you post, paint, or in some other way set up an ad on someone else’s property, you’re guilty of this particular crime and will be receiving a violation.
As for definitions, consumer product basically means any food, beverage, or other similar thing that’s offered for sale, as well as human consumption.
When you alter or adulterate some kind of consumer property with the intention of causing damage or causing fear that you’ll cause this damage, you’re guilty of this crime and will be facing a class A misdemeanor.
Same thing for this crime, but it’s got the added element of creating a substantial risk of some sort of serious injury to one or more people. This one is a class E felony.
For the purpose of this section, you can’t dump, throw, or otherwise deposit garbage on railroad tracks. Of course, depositing some sort of salt or sand to improve traction on roads isn’t a problem at all, and isn’t considered dumping.
Graffiti is when you etch, paint, or otherwise cover a surface on public property with a mark that damages this property. If you do this without getting the permission of the owner, you’re committing a class A misdemeanor.
You’re guilty of this crime when you possess some sort of tool or instrument that’s used to make graffiti as we defined it in the last section. This is a class B misdemeanor.
A taximeter basically means a device that automatically calculates a charge for driving people where they need to go. A taximeter accelerating device is a device like this that increases the charge past the maximum that’s allowed under the law. This one is a class A misdemeanor.
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