The letters of the law

It's question-and-answer time again. Thanks to all who wrote in.

Crosswalks and funerals

According to Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 272, "Crimes against chastity, morality, decency, and good order," cutting into a line of vehicles in a funeral procession is a criminal offense punishable by a fine of $50 or a month in prison.

But does the law, asks reader James Galeota of West Roxbury, apply to pedestrians as well?

"I've seen this twice. In the middle of a vehicular funeral procession from the church to the cemetery, a pedestrian steps into a crosswalk. Do the cars in the funeral procession have to stop?" Galeota asks.

Sergeant Joseph Deignan, commander of the Watertown Police Department's traffic unit, said pedestrians maintain the right of way no matter what.

"It would be extremely bad judgment on the pedestrian's part, but if they're in that crosswalk, they're in that magic space," Deignan said.

"If they're outside of the crosswalk and they interrupt a funeral procession, I could stop them and cite them for jaywalking. But I can't get them for interrupting a funeral procession."

The state fine for jaywalking is just $1.

Hidden charges

I got an e-mail from a taxi company that runs background checks on prospective employees. Drunken-driving charges, the company's human resources person has noticed, don't necessarily show up on someone's official criminal history, accessible through the CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) system.

Discrepancies arise because there are two levels of CORI checks. Law enforcement officials, or other government-related agencies, are privy to every court action in a person's life after age 17, whether the person was convicted or found not guilty of a crime. But members of the general public, including a potential employer, are allowed to see just the "public" version of someone's CORI file.

The public CORI can leave a lot out, said Terrel Harris, spokesman for the state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

"For a record to be publicly accessible, the criminal offense must be a conviction and carry a sentence of five years or more, or had to have occurred within the last two years in the case of a felony, or one year in the case of a misdemeanor," Harris said.

A first drunken-driving conviction is considered a misdemeanor. So is a second conviction. Only the third conviction is a felony. A person conceivably could have two drunken-driving convictions and a clean public criminal record if the convictions came more than 12 months ago, Harris said. Or a clean public record if he has three convictions all older than two years.

Other states operate differently, but Massachusetts state law provides more privacy to the individual, Harris said.

Legal to beg

Lots of things drive Cambridge resident Rosemarie Barker crazy when it comes to driving. High on the list: people who stake out intersections and solicit spare change from drivers stopped when the lights turn red.

To Barker, such panhandlers are traffic hazards. But my question is, are they breaking the law?

The answer might surprise you.

"Begging is constitutionally protected free speech," said Sergeant Michael Maffei, a member of the Cambridge police force's traffic unit.

"It's protected as long as you're not accosting or strong-arming someone. You can not arrest someone for holding a cup out and saying, 'Spare change?' "

The law wasn't always this way. For 166 years, panhandling, be it on a street or sidewalk, was illegal.

But in 1997, the state's Supreme Judicial Court threw out the vagrancy law, ruling that panhandlers who conduct themselves in a peaceful manner have "the right to engage fellow human beings with the hope of receiving aid and compassion," the Globe reported.

Maffei said police can arrest panhandlers who disrupt traffic or act in a disorderly manner. (Technically, they also could cite anyone who wanders into the street with jaywalking, but, as we mentioned earlier, the fine is just $1.)

But if panhandlers enter and exit only when traffic is stopped, and only hold signs or ask aloud for money, there's little the police can do, he said.

The only exception would be limited-access highways, where pedestrians aren't allowed.