{"id":25295,"date":"2024-11-23T06:31:53","date_gmt":"2024-11-23T11:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/?p=25295"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:53:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:53:28","slug":"what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Mischief and Criminal Trespass in Maine: Charges, Penalties &#038; Defenses"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What Is Criminal Mischief in Maine?<\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float: left; margin: 0 20px 10px 0; height: auto;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/All-4-Lawyers-Option-2-678x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Webb Law Firm team of criminal defense attorneys standing together\" width=\"250\" align=\"left\" \/><br \/>\nMaine defines <a href=\"https:\/\/legislature.maine.gov\/statutes\/17-A\/title17-Asec806.html\">criminal mischief<\/a> as a property crime. It involves intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly damaging, destroying, or tampering with another person&#8217;s property. The charges can be either misdemeanor or felony depending on the dollar amount of damage under Maine law. In practical terms, a criminal mischief charge means the state believes you damaged someone else&#8217;s property without legal justification. The consequences are serious.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/legislature.maine.gov\/statutes\/17-A\/title17-Asec806.html\">Criminal mischief<\/a> is defined in Maine statute. A person commits this offense when they:<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Criminal Mischief and Criminal Trespass in Maine: Charges, Penalties &#038; Defenses\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Is Criminal Mischief in Maine? Maine defines criminal mischief as a property crime. It involves intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly damaging, destroying, or tampering with another person&#8217;s property. The charges can be either misdemeanor or felony depending on the dollar amount of damage under Maine law. In practical terms, a criminal mischief charge means the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,6,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-criminal-defense","category-maine-criminal-law","category-property-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Criminal Mischief &amp; Trespass in Maine | Webb Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how Maine defines criminal mischief and criminal trespass, the penalties for each, and how a defense attorney can help\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Criminal Mischief &amp; Trespass in Maine | Webb Law\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Learn how Maine defines criminal mischief and criminal trespass, the penalties for each, and how a defense attorney can help\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Webb Law Firm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"14 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Criminal Mischief & Trespass in Maine | Webb Law","description":"Learn how Maine defines criminal mischief and criminal trespass, the penalties for each, and how a defense attorney can help","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Criminal Mischief & Trespass in Maine | Webb Law","twitter_description":"Learn how Maine defines criminal mischief and criminal trespass, the penalties for each, and how a defense attorney can help","twitter_image":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/social-image-logo-og.png","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Webb Law Firm","Est. reading time":"14 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/what-is-criminal-mischief-in-maine\/"},"author":{"name":"Webb Law Firm","@id":"https:\/\/www.webblawmaine.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2a779c0cfb58df839ae19364412f5dc6"},"headline":"Criminal Mischief and Criminal Trespass in Maine: Charges, Penalties &#038; 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