Court Opinion

ID: 9593070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:19:14.149124+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:16:42.797530
License: Public Domain

GERBER, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
The majority’s decision, which will be good news in teenage circles but not in shopping centers, errs in two respects, for which I respectfully dissent from my colleagues.
As the majority observes, the trial court implicitly made a finding that the conduct in question was “substantial” and constituted a “gross” deviation from the standard of care. Given our duty to defer to the trial court on such findings, I would accept that implied finding here.
This analysis leads to a factual observation. The question properly before us is whether this defendant was aware of and disregarded the substantial risk of damaging property with his shopping cart. On the facts, this defendant had to be aware of the risk of damaging vehicles in the parking lot. Cars were parked close (“nearby”) to where he was riding his unsteerable cart, and the parking lot was sloped and “busy,” as the majority observes, and the defendant had been told by his mother to stop his conduct. These facts indicate to me that the defendant was necessarily aware of and disregarded the *216risk of colliding with nearby vehicles with his shopping cart, which is exactly what he did in the not-insubstantial amount of over $700. I have no hesitation in finding him possessed of the mental state of recklessness and guilty of the offense of reckless criminal damage. For these reasons I dissent from my colleagues’ position.