## Facts

- Eileen Shaughnessy was a passenger in a car headed for a public park.
- The driver mistakenly turned into the grounds of a private retreat house across from the park.
- A guard stopped the vehicle and called police.
- Shaughnessy and the other occupants stayed seated in the car and did not move about the property.
- Shaughnessy was charged under a local ordinance prohibiting entry onto private property without permission.
- Shaughnessy also challenged the ordinance’s constitutionality, but the court found it unnecessary to decide that issue.

## Issues

1. Whether a non-driving passenger who neither directed the vehicle nor otherwise acted to enter or remain on private premises can be held liable under a trespass ordinance prohibiting unauthorized entry.
2. Whether criminal liability under the ordinance requires proof of a voluntary act by the accused.

## Decision

- The court dismissed the charge against Shaughnessy.
- The court held Shaughnessy could not be found guilty because she committed no voluntary act constituting “entry” onto private property.
- The court declined to reach the ordinance’s constitutionality because the case was resolved on nonconstitutional grounds.

## Legal Principles

- Criminal liability generally requires an actus reus that includes a voluntary act or voluntary omission.
- Even where intent or knowledge is not required, involuntary conduct is not punishable absent a recognized exception.
- A trespass-type prohibition on “entering” premises is construed to require volitional conduct attributable to the defendant; mere passive presence as a passenger without control over the vehicle’s movement is insufficient.

## Conclusion

A passenger’s passive presence in a vehicle that another person mistakenly drives onto private property does not satisfy the voluntary-act requirement for criminal trespass under a local unauthorized-entry ordinance, so the charge must be dismissed absent proof of volitional entry or continued presence.


People v. Shaughnessy, 319 N.Y.S.2d 626 (Nassau Dist. Ct. 1971)