Brickbat: License To Break and Enter

Pennsylvania Constable Timothy Moench and his wife Tricia Moench, a Camp Hill police officer, were charged with defiant trespassing for breaking into a Perry County women's shelter in 2024, while trying to serve a warrant. They jimmied the lock with a credit card to enter the building. The property manager confronted them, noting they didn't identify themselves and weren't allowed inside without a key fob. The woman they were looking for had not lived in the shelter for a month. Timothy Moench also reportedly told officers investigating the case, "If you are holding a warrant and the address is on the warrant, you may use any force necessary to enter that property. You could break windows, break doors, enter property, and search for the individual on that warrant."

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Timothy Moench also reportedly told officers investigating the case, "If you are holding a warrant and the address is on the warrant, you may use any force necessary to enter that property."

Constable is an elected office and one, as far as I know, that requires very little training for certification. And I am a little surprised they were criminally charged.

[Vernon Depner]

I wouldn't be surprised if he's right.

[mad.casual]

I don't think my brain is grokking the context switch or something (Especially after Emma's retarded, "They arrested Mahmoud without a warrant!" stupidity...). How is he *not* right?

Is defiant trespassing even a felony or is this yet another Emma Camp-style OMG! SNAFUs! situation where "The court rules that in accordance with the law; your punishment for not knowing the letter of the law in your public service position is to take two weeks to learn the law before you can be reinstated to your public position."

I don't know how the specific judge and jurisdiction parses warrants. Seems like anywhere else if the judge and officer swear an oath to probable cause to blow the doors off Mar-a-lag... I mean, 123 Main St., detain Donald J. Tru... I mean, John Smith, and seize any and all of Former President Donald Tru... I mean any resident's property therein, doors get blown off, John Smith gets detained, and property gets seized.

[Jerry B.]

https://lawbymerit.com/criminal-trespass-vs-defiant-trespass-a-comparison/

[mad.casual]

Right, I guess I'm saying, my understanding is that the only part missing or omitted from Moench's statement, or in contest over the affair, is the fact that the warrant needs to be issued or declared and/or the officers identify themselves. Otherwise, "Camp Hill PD open up!" is sufficient to kick the door in (which, again, affirms Moench's statement).

Top down, without something like the woman sought being Moench's ex-wife or something and the fact that the woman hadn't been their in over a month makes this seem like a massive nothingburger of a story.

No actual wrongs under color of law were performed in Camp Hill in 2024 and we're down to petty jimmying of the wrong lock in pursuit of a woman (for what reason?) to report on.

[mad.casual]

The real problem is that Tim wasn't wearing his wife Tricia's dress. Then it would've been the women's shelter's fault for locking him out. Social constructs man, they can be a real litter-having canid sometimes.

[MollyGodiva]

People like you just have to bring your LGBT hate into everything.

[Think It Through]

What did he say about L G or B? I read a couple of times and I'm not seeing anything. In fact he implied Tim is straight ("his wife").