354 S.E.2d 184 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1987
The appellant, Charles Mitchell Williams, was convicted of criminal trespass, stemming from his stepping on a small picket fence on the property of the Feminist Women’s Health Center, an abortion clinic. He admitted that he intentionally damaged the clinic’s fence as part of his continuing consistent conflict with, and crusade against, abortion, but defended solely on the basis that the fence violated the city’s right-of-way for a sidewalk and thus constituted an illegal barricade which he had a right to destroy.
Attached to his brief is a copy of a complaint Williams filed in the federal court against the United States Postal Service, Georgia Power Company, Inc., several hospitals in the Atlanta area, several
Nevertheless, sincerity of motive does not excuse the deliberate violation of criminal law in this case. OCGA § 16-7-21 (a) provides that “[a] person commits the offense of criminal trespass when he intentionally damages any property of another without his consent and the damage thereto is $500.00 or less . . .” Williams admitted that such occurred. The possibility that the fence infringed upon the city’s sidewalk right-of-way did not entitle Williams to take the law into his own hands, rather than reporting the problem fence to the appropriate regulatory division of the city.
Judgment affirmed.
