People v. Acosta

Opinion

IKOLA, J.

Under Penal Code section 502.5, a borrower under a loan secured by real estate may not intentionally harm the lender by removing statutorily specified improvements from the encumbered premises. Section 502.5 was amended to read in its present form some 91 years ago. Despite the age of the statute, we have not found a single appellate opinion, published or unpublished, in which an appellate court has reviewed a conviction under the statute. It appears we have been tasked with being the first to do so.

A jury convicted defendants Robert Conrad Acosta and Monique Evette Acosta of…