What is DUI with property damage?
Where a DUI results in damage to another's property or bodily injury short of serious bodily injury, the charge is a first-degree misdemeanor carrying up to twelve months and a fine up to $1,000. Standard DUI penalties apply on top, based on priors and reading.
Two elements the State has to establish beyond the impairment. That damage or injury occurred, and that the impaired driving caused it. Causation is genuinely contestable — a crash in which the other driver ran a light, or damage that predated the collision, or a chain-reaction event where fault isn't obvious.
The property damage element also opens up evidence the State would otherwise not need. Repair estimates, photographs, the other driver's account, and reconstruction all become relevant, and all of it can be examined.
Restitution generally becomes part of the resolution, which makes the actual damage figure worth scrutinizing rather than accepting.
Damage happening and impairment causing it are two different things the State has to prove. ---
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