Breaking Down Broken Laws in PLL based on Marlene King’s interview: PART ONE

Breaking Down Broken Laws in PLL based on Marlene King’s interview: PART ONE

When Charlotte was revealed as A, show runner I. Marlene King answered a myriad of questions about the show in an interview. She explained who was behind the many cruel and illegal acts on PLL. I figured exploring these answers from a legal standpoint would be a good way to get this blog up and running again.

In episode 2×04, Blind Dates, Ian was killed. Afterwards, fans wondered for the next 4 seasons who was behind his death. I. Marlene King has stated that Ian killed himself but that Mona staged the crime scene and wrote the suicide note composed of creepy A texts. In case anyone is wondering where I’m going with, it is not legal to stage a crime scene or to write a fake suicide note that’s riddled with lies.

If Mona were actually tried for all of her misdeeds, we would be here for years. These acts are actually pretty tame for her character.

Broken Law Alert 18 Pa Cons. Stat. § 4910. Tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

Next, we learned that in episode 3×13, Detective Wilden was behind Garrett Reynolds’ death and also putting Aria in a box with his dead body. Since Marlene King claims that Wilden was acting alone when he did this, I take that to mean that Wilden also drugged Aria. Wilden always had an interesting way of enforcing the law. Although we did not see it happen, we are told that Wilden shot Garrett, bringing us to our next pretty little crime, which actually was incredibly ugly.

Wilden’s Broken Law Alert (for killing Garrett) 18 Pa Cons. Stat. § 2501. Criminal homicide. (In this case it’s first degree murder)

The next issue with Wilden is arguably up for debate. If someone locked me in a box with a dead body and tried to push me off a train, I might think that person was trying to kill me. Then again, if Wilden had wanted to kill Aria, he could have shot her the way he did to Garrett. I am going to discuss both, aggravated assault and attempted murder. You guys can be the judges and let me know your opinion on Wilden’s intent.

Wilden’s Broken Laws!

18 Pa Cons. Stat. § 2702. Aggravated assault. (In relevant part)

OR : 18 Pa Cons. Stat. § 901. Criminal attempt (in relevant part).

18 Pa Cons. Stat. § 2502. Murder (in relevant part).

The law also takes issue with the fact that Wilden had Aria trapped, against her will in a box with no reasonable way of escaping. This makes him guilty of another crime; I know everyone is shocked about this corrupt officer breaking another law.

Wilden’s Broken Law! 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 2903. False imprisonment.

Wilden caused so much trouble in season 3 and Charlotte couldn’t have him going around attempting to take the lives of her “dolls” and especially threatening her family. The interview with I. Marlene King confirms Charlotte’s confession in the finale of season 6A; the interview reflects that Cece killed Wilden. We already know that Wilden was shot and that multiple people tried to take credit for his death. Charlotte is lucky she did not get caught officially, because it’s frowned upon to kill police officers, even the crooked, “ass backwards” ones in Rosewood.

Charlotte’s Broken Law Alert!

18 Pa Cons. Stat.§ 2507. Criminal homicide of law enforcement officer. (In relevant part)

Apparently in Rosewood, the A team gets sent to a mental institution instead of prison, even if they’ve killed someone before. As Mona once put it, “don’t they know that’s what we want?”

This is getting long, so I am going to end part one of this entry here. I. Marlene King has a lot more answers in this interview, so stay tuned for my next installments. Additionally, please comment with episodes from PLL 6b you’d like me to cover; I didn’t cover that part of the season but I want to do it now. Thanks for reading!