Disorderly conduct New York City?

Question

An artist friend got a ticket for disorderly conduct last night 10 PM, not many people on the road at that time of the day... She rappelled from the third floor of a building in Soho as part of an artistic performance. She did not block traffic and it was not a hazardous situation as nobody was on her side of the street when she was climbing down. Should she plead not guilty within the given 48 hours? Or should she rather go to court and face a fine?

Thanks in advance for your answers!

Best

Jet

Answer 1

She did put her life in danger and she was trespassing when on that building.  Too much evidence against her.  She should plead guilty and pay the fine.

Answer 2

The first thing she should do is get a copy of the report, and see who the complainant is. If it is the owner of the building, she is out of luck.

She also needs to check if there is a city ordinance that prohibits climbing/jumping from buildings, which I suspect there is.

Answer 3

I think Disorderly Conduct is only when your disturbing people. If she wasn't, she wasn't. Fight it.

Answer 4

In NY Disorderly Conduct is only a violation(lower than misdemeanor) so if she pleads guilty its not the end of the world because it is not recorded on your criminal record.  However, if you want to plead not guilty, which will mean you will have to go to court, she will be probably be offered ACOD once she gets to the court by the prosecuter(Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal), which means the charges will be dismissed if she does not get in trouble for a certain period of time.  There are so many cases in NYC so they try to offer plea bargains to cases like these to clear the backlog.  It basically comes down to if your friend has time to deal with going to the court.