I think that you might need to post your question elsewhere. The Answerbank is based in the UK. Your username, together with your references to 'outback', an 'apartment building' and walking 'a block' (none of which feature in British English) suggests that you're in the USA, where the laws and legal system are very different from those in the UK.
We Brits like to help everyone but there will be very few people using this site who know anything about US law. Try posting on a US-based site, such as one of these:
http://www.answerbag.com/
http://answers.yahoo.com/
Chris