An Ohio teacher was properly convicted of trespassing in a public park at night, an appeals court ruled.
Rachel Rodriguez, a teacher in the Painesville school system, was charged with criminal trespass after involving herself in a incident that began with 200 people fighting in the street and blocking traffic.
Later, the action shifted to a Sheetz gas station, with more fighting and punching car windows.
Officers learned that some of the participants had moved to Kiwanis Recreation Park, which was closed because it was after sundown.
Police arrived at the park and pulled over a couple of cars. Two of Rodriguez’s students called her.
She specialized in teaching coping skills to kids who had difficulty controlling their emotions.
According to Rodriguez, one of the students was planning to join the military, while another was prone to seizures during stressful situation.
Rodriguez and her husband went to the park.
Officer Parkomaki told her the park was closed and that she was trespassing. He testified that Rodriguez responded by yelling at him and recording him on her phone.
After she said she had arrived to pick up “her kids,” Officer Parkomaki allowed her to remain in the park.
Rodriguez approached Officer Frederico, who had detained the occupants of another car. She admitted that she was not the parents of any of the children, but she was “here to make sure nobody’s rights got trampled on.”
She refused Frederico’s instructions to leave, and she stayed until the parents had picked up their children.
Rodriguez wasn’t arrested, but she was charged with obstruction of official business and criminal trespass. She was convicted of the trespass charge and fined $25 and court costs.
She appealed, but Ohio’s 11th District Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in an opinion written by Judge Robert J. Patton.
He refuted Rodriguez’s argument that the city of Painesville did not prove that it owned Rec Park.
“The land or premises need not be owned by any particular person, entity, or jurisdiction to trigger the statute,” Patton wrote. “Rather, it must belong to someone other than the defendant.”
He also stated that Rodriguez was not properly granted privilege by officers to be at the park.
“Although the record reveals that Rodriguez may have been temporarily granted privilege by Officer Parkomaki, Rodriguez apparently obtained that privilege by deception. Thereafter, she exceeded the scope of that privilege and refused to leave after the privilege was subsequently revoked by Officer Frederico,” the judge wrote.
He cited her use of the phrase “her kids.”
“By refusing to answer which juvenile Rodriguez was there to collect, it is clear from the record that Rodriguez deceptively caused Officer Parkomaki to believe that she was a parent or guardian to one of the juveniles on scene,” Patton wrote.
