Opinion ID: 1924213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: II-A Evidence of Ownership

Text: Defendants were indicted for breaking and entering the Tremont Consolidated Grammar School of the Town of Tremont, Maine,. . . and therein . . . with intent to deprive permanently the Town of Tremont, Maine, . . . of its property . . . taking and carrying away certain foodstuffs. Defendants claim that the evidence introduced at trial failed to prove either that the Town of Tremont owns, or has a property interest in, the Tremont Consolidated Grammar School, or that it owned or had a property interest in the food taken from the building. We disagree. From the evidence the presiding Justice was warranted in finding as facts that (1) the building broken and entered is a school located in the Town of Tremont, Maine; (2) two of the witnesses, Clyde and Jeffrey Porter, had attended the school as children, transferring from it when the family moved to Southwest Harbor, Maine; (3) the Town maintains a school lunch account; (4) the cooks at the Tremont School are paid by funds from this account; (5) the Town pays the salary of the school janitor. These facts justified the further conclusion by the presiding Justice that since the Town finances the daily maintenance of the building and at least partially underwrites the lunch program, it had a property interest in the building. It was further established at trial that all of the food stored in the school storage area had either been purchased with school funds or had been donated to the school by the federal government. Although the evidence did not directly establish that the food was purchased with funds provided by the Town (from the school lunch account), [5] it adequately indicated an interest of the Town in the lunch program sufficient, with the evidence taken as a whole, to establish a property interest of the Town in the food stolen. [6]