Lawyers: private property, tresspassing...

I recently heard that a friend is being prosecuted for walking through a private property on train tracks (which I don’t think are active anymore). They are trying to stick him with “criminal trespassing” and a $1000 fine. Furthermore, I seem to remember some laws that entail the following: train tracks through private property are state owned and you could actually walk through private properties legally that way (as long as you stayed within a certain (~ft?) range of the train tracks). I’m pretty sure the police scared him a ways off of this legal zone (if it exists). Does he have any defense?

Opps. Please delete this duplicate… I’m blaming it on the currently slow page load times of the straight dope forums.

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Duplicate Closed.

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