Penalty for drunken intrusions localized

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Tweet The penalties for mistakenly entering a stranger's home while drunk or committing a minor assault will be handled locally, not on a state level, after the East Lansing City Council amended the city's ordinances Tuesday night.

Now, when someone is charged with invading a home while intoxicated or committing minor forms of assault and battery, his or her case will be handled by the East Lansing Police Department and forwarded to the city attorney's office for prosecution instead of going to the Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

"One of the benefits of this is it streamlines the process for us," East Lansing Deputy police Chief Juli Lieber said at the meeting.

Typically, there are a few cases each weekend in which an intoxicated person enters the wrong home in East Lansing, she said.

The amended city ordinance gives police officers the choice to penalize people locally or forward the case on to a higher court, said City Attorney Dennis McGinty.

"It is the officer's choice," McGinty said. "The officers can choose to charge with the state statute."

The law previously carried a felony charge for someone entering the wrong home. Now it's a misdemeanor charge.

Because mistaken home invasion cases and simple assaults will now be handled on the local level, the fines and court fees generated by the cases will be kept within East Lansing.

Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III disagreed with East Lansing altering its ordinance, saying state law should handle cases of home invasion.

"We see a lot of people who will break into a home, and they might have had something to drink, and then they claim to be in the wrong house," he said. "When really, their purpose was nefarious."

If someone was intoxicated and he or she did enter the wrong home, the prosecutor's office usually can determine that, Dunnings said.

"To me, (altering the ordinance) is unnecessary," he said. "The reason they do this is strictly financial."

In the past, people whose homes have been invaded simply ask the police officer on scene to remove the intoxicated person and don't press charges, Liebler said. Now, intoxicated people who stumble into the wrong house must face some kind of penalty, she added, whereas before people could choose not to press charges.

"We have a lot more control over the consequences," she said.

Kris Turner can be reached at turne112@msu.edu.

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