## Facts

- Sally Mistook was a first-year law student.
- At about 6:45 p.m., Mistook was found in a law school stairwell carrying a folder.
- The folder contained a draft of the final examination for Criminal Law.
- Mistook was enrolled in the Criminal Law course taught by Professor Earnest.
- The folder had been left in Professor Earnest’s office at the law school.
- Police went to Mistook’s home and observed two children playing with a full-size, empty refrigerator on the street outside.
- The refrigerator had Mistook’s name on it.
- The State charged Mistook with burglary, trespass, and leaving an abandoned refrigerator accessible to children.
- The trial court held a preliminary hearing to determine whether probable cause existed to proceed with the charges.
- The trial court found probable cause to proceed, and Mistook appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence presented at the preliminary hearing established probable cause to hold Mistook to answer for burglary based on her possession of the Criminal Law exam draft that had been left in Professor Earnest’s office.
2. Whether the preliminary-hearing evidence established probable cause to proceed on a trespass charge based on Mistook’s alleged unauthorized presence or conduct connected to the office where the folder had been left.
3. Whether the preliminary-hearing evidence established probable cause to proceed on the charge of leaving an abandoned refrigerator accessible to children based on the refrigerator bearing Mistook’s name and being accessible to children on the street outside her home.

## Decision

- The trial court, after a preliminary hearing, found probable cause to proceed on the charges of burglary, trespass, and leaving an abandoned refrigerator accessible to children.
- Mistook appealed the probable-cause determination to the Supreme Court of the State of Imagination.
- Publicly accessible summaries identify the facts and the posture (appeal from a probable-cause ruling) but do not provide the Supreme Court’s final disposition or its full reasoning.

## Legal Principles

- A preliminary hearing is used to determine whether there is probable cause to require a defendant to stand trial.
- Probable cause at a preliminary hearing asks whether there are reasonable grounds, based on the evidence presented, to believe the charged offenses were committed and that the defendant committed them; it is a lower showing than proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
- In a case involving burglary and trespass at the charging stage, the probable-cause analysis generally turns on evidence of unauthorized entry or presence and facts supporting the required mental state for the offenses.
- For a child-safety offense involving an abandoned refrigerator, probable cause generally requires evidence linking the defendant to the refrigerator and showing it was left accessible to children in a way covered by the statute.
- People v. Sally Mistook, 1 Imagination Cases 1 (2004), appears in fictional “Imagination Cases” materials used for instruction; publicly available information is limited to the scenario and procedural posture.

## Conclusion

People v. Sally Mistook, 1 Imagination Cases 1 (2004), concerns Sally Mistook’s appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Imagination from a trial court’s preliminary-hearing finding of probable cause on charges of burglary, trespass, and leaving an abandoned refrigerator accessible to children, based on her possession of a Criminal Law final exam draft that had been left in Professor Earnest’s office and the presence of a full-size empty refrigerator bearing her name on the street outside her home where children were playing; publicly accessible sources provide the facts and posture but not the Supreme Court’s detailed holding or reasoning.
