Hi,
You can find New York's statute of limitations on this page:
ARTICLE 30--TIMELINESS OF PROSECUTIONS AND SPEEDY TRIAL
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?cl=25&a=9
As you can see, the deadline for when prosecution must begin varies
from one year for a petty offense (that's something less than a
misdemeanor) to five years for a felony (other than murder and rape
and that sort of thing). What level of offense a break-in is depends
on the facts of the case, but you could assume for purposes of
discussion that it's at least a misdemeanor, so prosecution could
begin up to two or five years later.
There is no specific deadline for filing the report or pressing
charges. In theory, your boyfriend could wait a year or more to file
a complaint. As a practical matter, however, no prosecutor is going
to waste time with the matter if there is significant delay and if
there no evidence other than the victim's word. In other words,
there's no specific deadline that has to be met before the statute of
limitations, but the longer your boyfriend waits the less likely the
police and prosecutor are to listen to him.
If he does press charges, AND it is taken to court and you are
convicted, you could theoretically face jail time. Breaking into a
home is a serious offense. It's hard to say what would happen in
actuality, though. A lot depends on your previous criminal record, if
any.
I do suggest -- and I'm not a lawyer, so this isn't legal advice --
that if you are questioned about this by police, don't say anything
until you talk to a lawyer first. Anything you say could be used
against you, so you don't want to give the police ammunition. You
don't have to answer police questions if you don't want to.
So the bottom line is this: The worst that could happen is that you
end up in jail. If you want to know how likely that is, you'll need
to present the full facts to a lawyer.
Best wishes,
mvguy
Search strategy: I went to http://www.findlaw.com and followed the
links to find the New York statute of limitations. |
