What will be my friend's consequences?

Question

I've asked a few questions about this already, but my friend's court date is today and I found out his exact charges. Just to give a quick background of what happend, my friend was driving drunk and crashed his truck into a house. His friend who was the passenger got hurt and my friend left the scene of the accident. The cops found him later on and charged him with 3 things. 1 ticket was speeding, 1 was something else ( i forget), and 1 was leaving the scene of an accident with a personal injury. I've done some research and it says he will probably get 3 months in jail. His friend is sueing him and the people who own the house are not hurt, and have not tried sueing him..yet. I was just wondering if a cop or someone who knows what they are talking about can e-mail me or IM me and help me answer a few questions. But here's the general question. What do you think his consequences will be?

Answer 1

The facts of the case are helpful, but other factors are missing.  Drunk Driving is clearly a crime, and is obviously the the "something else".  First off, your friend should realize that he's facing two separate avenues of pain.

One is civil - in which private citizens (the passenger, the homeowner) will sue your friend for negligent or reckless behavior that caused them loss, for "damages" or money needed to restore them.  That means medical bills or home repairs.  If your friend's behavior was egregious enough (your question doesn't go far enough in dealing with that) the civil court may tack on punitive damages.  Civil courts work more slowly than criminal cases, but the standard of proof is lower - proof by a preponderance of the evidence rather than "beyond a reasonable doubt" which governs criminal cases.

Criminal cases are the other problem - neither the passenger nor the homeowner get to recover anything (although in fairness, a civil judgement awarding damages against your friend may be worthless if your friend has nothing to pay with).  Your friend will have the right to trial by jury, though he may want to waive that.

What will he face in a criminal case?  Missing info would dramatically affect what your friend can get.  I'd be interested to know what research gave you the 3 months.  When you combine his fleeing from an accident scene with drunk driving (whether there's a BAC test or not; in NYC, it's legal to charge someone without any BAC test at all) with the facts of the accident, it's likely that this will be a trial case.  The reason for this is the sheer terror that these cases hold for everybody involved that these guys will drive drunk again.  NY law has actually codified this terror, elevating repeat DWI charges to felonies.  Imagine this - you're the ADA or Judge on such a matter, you cut the guy a break and he thanks you by going out and mowing down a family of four (five when you count the baby one of the victims was carrying).  The next morning you crack open the "New York Post" and find that you have been named as the guy who let "Drunk Driver Jail Proof" walk and continue his reign of blood.  Nobody wants to let this guy walk, so everybody comes down hard on the guy.

So - aggravating factors you may have missed - extent of injuries, extent of property damages, criminal history (general and specific to driving), driver history (you think all those moving violations and run stop signs don't matter?  Sorry, they never go away), the results of the BAC test or reasons why such a test was not taken, and whether (and how bad) your friend's license was suspended or revoked.  These details would significantly inform as to the outcome of your friend's case.

Answer 2

This will be at the decresstion of the Judge.  I think it will TOTALLY depend on his record.  If he is pretty much a good kid, than he might not do any time at all.  If this has happened before (him getting in trouble) than I think 3-6 months might do him some good.

The lawsuit is a seperate issue from the state charges, and will likely be handled by the insurence companies.  The owners of the house are stupid if they don't sue... your friend was EXTREEMLY neglagent.

I hope he has a good lawyer.

Good luck!