Criminal Law Part II (The buried Red Sox Jersey)

[RyDogg66]

I think we have all heard about the guy who put a Red Sox jersey into the cement beneath the vistor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, right?

 

Well they dug it up (why, I have no idea) and now there may be criminal charges, or a civil suit.

 

They warned the traitorous construction worker, Gino Castignoli, to watch his back, saying criminal and civil charges could be on deck."I spoke with a (prosecutor). There may be criminal issues," Yankee Chief Operating Officer Lonn Trost said.Trost speculated that Castignoli could be on the hook for criminal mischief.

Again, I dont dabble in criminal law at all, and this type of issue is way to obscure to even be covered in law school, but how could this guy be criminally charged? I know that pretty much anything falls under the broad range of "criminal mischief" or "disorderly conduct" but burying a cloth shirt in cement?

 

And civil charges? What are the damages? The Yankees had a slab of concrete that was presumably laid correctly. They chose to dig it up and re-do it. I would guess they would have to hire some sort of expert to testify that the concrete was not sound or that the useful life of the concrete would be shortened by the shirt being buried in there. My guess though would be that a slab on concrete with some cloth buried in there somewhere = slab on concrete without the shirt buried in there, and that the Yankees caused their own damages.

[TracyThom]

In Wisconsin, there is nothing that the guy could be charged criminally with. I'm not sure about New York law. I'm sure a clever lawyer could find something to sue him over in civil court. Emotional distress or something along those lines.

[thevaccinator27]

From the NY jury instructions, here are the elememts:

 

1. That defendant damaged tangible property;

2. That the damaged property belonged to another person;

3. That defendant acted intentionally when he/she damaged the property.

 

I don't see them proving #1 very easily. There are some good jury nullification arguments in this case.

 

Here's a link to the NY Penal code at issue. http://ypdcrime.com/penal.law/article145.htm#145.00

[RyDogg66]

Being creative, what about Dimunition of Property? Would Yankee Stadium as a whole be less valuable with this jersey buried in there? To some, yes, but for others, no. In that case, the measure of damages would be the smaller of the cost to remove or the actual dimunition of the value. It would be hard to prove dimunition though.

[jwill535]

There could be some sort of fraud charges or vandalism. He was hired to perform a job and by placing that jersey in the concrete he "could have" effect the integrity of the concrete(highly highly doubtful), good luck proving this. To be honest, having been a carpenter for 8 years in my life, if you knew what was buried around and in the foundation and floor you would be amazed. Hell, if you knew how much non usage of port o potties happens on a job site both big construction and houses you would be amazed, at least around here(Madison) drywallers are famous for using tubs, toliets(not hooked up) stud spaces, and sump pump holes as toliets.

[TooLiveBrew]

Well they dug it up (why, I have no idea)

 

Because it's Yankees-Red Sox mental instability. Did you hear how they were talking about it during the game on ESPN last night? I regretfully admit that I endured yet another Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, with its 'announcing.' The talk was literally borderline gypsy-with-crystal-ball-in-basement-of-the-Alamo crazy.

[RyDogg66]

Well they dug it up (why, I have no idea)

 

Because it's Yankees-Red Sox mental instability. Did you hear how they were talking about it during the game on ESPN last night? I regretfully admit that I endured yet another Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, with its 'announcing.' The talk was literally borderline gypsy-with-crystal-ball-in-basement-of-the-Alamo crazy.

Come on, there is no basement in the Alamo.

 

[TooLiveBrew]

WHAT?!?!

[TheBwaz]

Disclaimer: I got a B-minus in Torts and a B in Crim Law, so take this for what it is worth.

On the Criminal charges, I doubt a prosecutor brings a case. Too much high profile hassle for a story that even New York is gonna forget in a week. That first element is hard to prove. Plus the sexiness is out of the case with the teams swapping jerseys for charity.

On the civil end, the Steinbrenners have a crapload of money so they can be as screwy as they want to be. Any moron can bring a case, and there is probably juuust enough here for a lawyer to take it and not face sanctions. On the other hand, the guy is a construction worker, you are only gonna bleed him so far. Doesn't matter if he is a Red Sox fans, rich people hitting the working class where they live is a PR nightmare.

Who has money? The construction company might be loaded, but good luck proving they had some kind of duty to hire only Yankee fans or only non-Sawks fans to build the stadium.

[RyDogg66]

Negligent Supervision

Negligent Hiring, etc.

 

The hard part is damages. You might have a tort theory that makes sense, but proving the Yankees were damaged would be the killer.

[TheBwaz]

I'll agree on that. Did the Yankees have to dig the thing up because of structural problems? In otherwords did they have to dig it up? If the answer is no, throw the damages right out the window. Las ti checked, bad juju does not damages make.

[jwill535]

Like i have said before, there is more trash buried in your foundation and around it then you would like to know. Everytime a house is built coffee cups, bottles, wrappers etc all get thrown in there. There is probably a bag full of trash under every stoop right now. Unless there is some crack pot engineer that can say that it effects the integrity of the concrete i am going to say that this just goes away.

[hawing]

Seems to me that digging it up and threatening a lawsuit just shows that the Yankees let the whole issue get into their heads. Hah! Boston wins already.

[RyDogg66]

Also, after the exhumed the Ortiz jersey, Papi has started to come out of his slump.

[lcbj68c]

There could be some sort of fraud charges or vandalism. He was hired to perform a job and by placing that jersey in the concrete he "could have" effect the integrity of the concrete(highly highly doubtful), good luck proving this. To be honest, having been a carpenter for 8 years in my life, if you knew what was buried around and in the foundation and floor you would be amazed. Hell, if you knew how much non usage of port o potties happens on a job site both big construction and houses you would be amazed, at least around here(Madison) drywallers are famous for using tubs, toliets(not hooked up) stud spaces, and sump pump holes as toliets.

 

I just picked the wrong thread to read over breakfast.