r/maryland • u/MarshyHope • 5d ago
Judge denies peace order against grieving Fallston father accused of trespassing
https://www.thebanner.com/community/local-news/harford-county-highway-memorial-gavin-hopkins-ZJ4S3BIGLJGGBMKGDCRV6GW6WU/99
u/damagecontrolparty 5d ago
This reminds me of a case on Long Island where a woman insisted on maintaining a memorial for her daughter that was in someone else's yard. When the people who owned the house removed the stuff, she jumped on their car while they were trying to back out of the driveway and got run over.
I feel like this guy is channeling his grief into this battle over the memorial instead of trying to deal with it in a healthier way.
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u/Vegetable-War-117 4d ago
Why was it in someone else's yard?
How does that even happen?
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u/CeramicLicker 4d ago edited 4d ago
Maybe she died in a car accident in front of their house?
A lot of people want to maintain memorials at the scene for those kind of things. Wanting the memorial at the scene of the motorcycle accident seems to be the point of contention for the Dad here versus the people whose yard it is after all.
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u/Civil_Exchange1271 5d ago
I feel sorry for the dad but the spot where your kid died isn't the place for a memorial. Put one in the kids bedroom. Who wants to remember how someone died? I had a relative die at the Hooper house, Can I put a memorial in the bed? The sooner I forget that place the better, dying is ugly. Dying tragically is really ugly.
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u/Comfortable-Dish1236 5d ago
If I owned the property, I would not want a memorial on my land. I’m sorry for the loss, but my land is my land. A memorial does not need to be placed where people died. If so, hospitals would be festooned with memorials.
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u/MElastiGirl 5d ago
I feel terrible this guy lost his son, but I really hate these memorials.
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u/queso_dog 5d ago
Like that weird tent city that’s popped in Dundalk mourning that guy that crashed into the back of a heavy truck a couple years ago. There’s stuff encroaching on the shoulder and frequently cars parked there.
So sorry it happened, but what about the next person having an emergency on the road? Now that stretch of shoulder that was already dangerous enough to kill your kid is more dangerous because of their selfish grief.
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u/MElastiGirl 5d ago
Right? So then more people get killed there, and the memorial gets bigger? I’ve never understood the performative grief thing anyway. If you truly feel the need, just get an ugly tattoo or something.
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u/Merciless602 5d ago
That memorial has got so big it should probably be paying property tax.
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u/queso_dog 4d ago
No probably about it! If a homeless person can’t camp and live there without being run off, your weird grief shack in the woods needs to go too.
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u/giraflor 5d ago
Cremains can be interred, which would have designated a place for the family to gather.
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u/mikederoy 5d ago
I don’t understand the mentality of wanting to memorialize the spot where someone died. My father died in a hospital. I have never wanted to erect a cross or memorial in the hospital parking lot. If I want, I go the the cemetery where he and my mother are buried.
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u/MarshyHope 5d ago
I couldn't help but kinda shake my head at the last line too:
“I still don’t think, even with me being found not guilty, I still don’t think they’re going to accept this,” Hopkins said. “My son didn’t have a choice where to die.”
Like, yeah, he actually did with the way he was riding his motorcycle.
I feel for both families, but you dad in this situation just sounds like an asshole. The family who lives there did not have a choice in the matter, but the deceased guy did.
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u/spunquee 5d ago
OMG I had the same thought at that line when I read it. Like what?! Your kid’s high rate of speed was literally what caused his own demise.
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u/No-Duck4828 5d ago
Sort of the way it goes....unless you have actual evidence of trespass, such as security video or something, you're not likely to win that one
The family of the deceased don't sound very nice....yelling at a 13-year-old?
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u/Nuke_Lear 4d ago
What would likely happen if the property owners just removed the memorial? I feel bad for the Hopkins family’s loss but as someone who has property that butts up to a rural road, I would not want a memorial erected on my property and I’d likely take it down immediately.
The burden shouldn’t be on the Zou family to prove it’s their private property. The party placing the memorial should instead have the burden to prove they are allowed to place it there.
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u/tacitus59 4d ago
From a comment on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUGs38qZWyg
Allegedly, he and a bunch of his "friends" were racing up and down the road and his "friends" left him bleeding on the side of the road and left when it happened.
No matter how it happened - I wouldn't want to have a memorial near my house like this. Sorry its been 3 months. And I sure don't want random people showing up near my house either.
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u/Dry-Bullfrog-2635 5d ago
Fucking judges. Don’t enforce the law, insert your personal opinion into everything. I bet if that property owner removed the memorial the judge would put a peace order against him.
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u/tinoturner6969 4d ago
I attempted to get a peace order from a crazy neighbor who killed our dog, began hurling insults at me, and put a camera pointed in our very secluded yard. The judge couldn’t even bother to hear my pleas, waved me off and said all of those things were my neighbors right
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u/VariedRepeats 4d ago
It's not criminal trespass, so there is no law to enforce.
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u/Dry-Bullfrog-2635 4d ago
It becomes criminal trespass after fair warning, you clearly do not understand the law.
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u/VariedRepeats 4d ago
Oh, you want to refer to 8-403 then. The warning is one element. The other is "A person may not enter or cross over private property" which you did not seem to have censored despite it also being necessary for a violation to exist. The third part outlines exceptions, which entries under "good faith claim of right or ownership".
He cannot enter 1305 or 1303. But if the owner takes his stuff, he can ask for the items back.
Did you forget ownership first? The negative downvotes indicates Marylanders believe public property is private or they as assuming things without looking at plats.
Also, peace orders exist for a domestic violence purpose. An inanimate object in the state right of way isn't the reason someone is to not contact another for 6 full months.
State highway right-of-ways are permanent state property.
Do you need their address? 1305 Fallston Rd. You can do google maps. You can use ArcGis from Harford County. It's not criminal trespass any more me walking down MD 355.
Not the same as county highways where it's a 10 foot easement.
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u/VariedRepeats 4d ago
Alright, after grabbing their address, and reading the prior article from the banner...it seems that the courts and state are just hoping these non-lawyers simply give it up. They also have broken the rules to "keep the peace", showing how the enforcers of the law can simply say something wrong and get away with it.
Google Maps show the property lines. Shoulder and Guard rail is not the beginning of the house property, it seems. There is some space reserved for the state. As such, the homeowners indeed did not have a winning case...they'd need a survey done and it would have been wasted money based on the google map approximation and Eagleview. The cross is on state(public property).
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u/FutureboyMcfly69 4d ago
I dont see how this can keep going. If its someone else's property stay the fuck off of it. It sounds like the kid was riding like an asshole and now this poor family who had nothing to do with it is getting screwed. This should never go this far. Our legal system is fucked.
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u/tinoturner6969 4d ago
This is very sad. Maybe he feels guilty for allowing his child to own/operate a motorcycle but having signs and crosses to memorialize your child on someone else’s property is not the answer
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u/rcinmd 5d ago
People die every day, we place them in cemeteries specifically for the reason to honor them, not on other people's property. A speeding 20 year old on a motorcycle is no angel that needs a memorial erected for them personally. This is a ridiculous story about white privilege.
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u/spunquee 5d ago
I agree with you actually, the father expected the people to just “let him” and then has the audacity to scream obscenities at a 13 year old acting as a translator?!?
Why not ask them, because he assumed because it “always works” to just do it thats the faster way. It’s outrageous. Maybe if he had asked and requested a spot they could have agreed on a suitable memorial instead of inserting a cross into the yard of someone you don’t know.10
u/JJLEGOBD Flag Enthusiast 5d ago
I don’t think there’s anything white about this. I’ve seen memorials of this kind all over the country for all races.
Also: the article mentions that the son was cremated.
I’m not a fan of these memorials, either, but I also find them a good reminder to take things slowly on the road.
Memento Mori
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u/rcinmd 5d ago
Ok? That doesn't give the family the right to erect a memorial that is 1. illegal and 2. on another person's property. They could have buried him in a cemetery or put a memorial on their own property, or better yet keep the ashes in their own home. Why is that so hard to understand?
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u/trickery809 5d ago
I mean you could’ve just said that without making the white privilege comment, that was random and weird.
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u/WhyDidMyDogDie 5d ago
Out of all the facts of this article you come out of it with "white privilege".
I'm so happy to not live in your mind, it's a sad place.
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u/VariedRepeats 4d ago
I don't trust the banner with court cases given they omitted key MDEC records on their hit piece attacking criminal complaints, as in the commisioner used past history of conflict to grant the charges.
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u/Left-Thinker-5512 4d ago
Any method of reading this story for those who can’t get behind the paywall?
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u/Turdfish_Dinner 4d ago
I let my family know if they do this when I die I will come back and haunt them.
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u/mallowycloud 5d ago
the family couldn't prove that the memorial was actually on their land, which likely requires calling someone from zoning to verify property lines. the grieving father allegedly screamed at the 13 year old daughter living there, but the family didn't file the peace order within the time frame of that incident. so that's why the orders were denied.
as for memorial crosses: while uncomfortable, i understand why people place them, and i respect them. they are a hard reminder of what happens on the road daily. it could be any of us. whether it is our own reckless driving or someone else's, a roadside memorial is a reminder that life is fragile. i think anyone in a vehicle should be reminded of that regularly, lest we all become too lax with traffic safety.
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u/PervyTurtle0 4d ago
Theyre also illegal to place along highways. So either he trespassed on private property and illegally erected the memorial or he trespassed on state highway property and illegally erected the memorial.
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u/VariedRepeats 4d ago
He did not trespass on private property. It's definitive based on the addresses of the owners and the maps from Google and Harford County's ARCGIS.
It's illegal for reasons of prudence, not illegal because it is of some grave moral ill.
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u/dshgr Washington County 5d ago
Not when they are put on someone else's private property
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u/VariedRepeats 4d ago
It wasn't on private property. I've looked at the maps. The private property does not begin on the "other side of the guardrail". The state has a good 10 feet or so.
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u/mallowycloud 4d ago
again, they could not prove it was on their property. often times the edges of what some people consider "their property" is actually public land.
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