I'm in Pennsylvania, by the way.
So both of my parked cars were smashed in front of my house by a drunk driver, my neighbors called the police because the driver appeared to have fled the scene to avoid responsibility. After about an hour, the police reported that they got them and we all celebrated.
My father's best friend appears the next morning at his house, (as he always does) and apologizes that his daughter, whom we all know and care about, is the one that smashed both my cars. My parents recommended our family's lawyer and told me to just forget about it. However, the police report still has all the underpinnings of a hit and run. This is actually her second DUI. While I can't help her with that, the police still haven't submitted the police report for the accident.
So I'm obviously not pursuing civil damages because I care about her and there's no way in hell that she left the scene to avoid culpability. Her father has gone above and beyond to help me more than once in the past at his own expense.
So no civil... But what about CRIMINAL CHARGES???
It's worth noting that the police officer has yet to submit the report and will do it tomorrow in the evening.
Can I update the police report? If so, how??
How do the criminal charges work? Do they depend on the civil charges? Can I drop the criminal charges, too?
Is there anything else I can do to prevent criminal charges?
How does an insurance claim impact her legally, if at all?
My parents keep telling me to stop worrying and all I can do is hope for the best, but I'd pretty upset to find that she gets a jail sentence because I didn't do anything.
kidcool97 on October 24th, 2018 at 22:20 UTC »
Oh yes, I am judging the shit out of anyone that drink and drives along with anyone that enables them. If that makes me more repugnant then a multi-DUI person so be it.
roudyrod on October 24th, 2018 at 20:49 UTC »
Side story on hitting parked cars while drunk without consequences.
I know a guy who has hit parked cars while drunk on 3 separate occasions (2 with kids in the car) and got away with it. First two were in his exclusive neighborhood and instead of sticking around he drove home, put the car in the garage and called his attorney (aka, his fixer). Attorney rang the neighbor's doorbells and informed them that his unnamed client was extremely tired while coming home from work and might or might not have hit their cars. Because he is an upstanding individual he had authorized the fixer to offer them $15K to fix damage (we are talking like $2,000 worth of body work in actual damage that was done to their vehicle). Of course they didn't want to get the police involved at that point because a guy literally just handed them 15K in actual cash.
The 3rd time was the best because he went to a convenience store for more beer while shithammered drunk. He backed into two parked cars there and it was all caught by the cameras at the store. He left and within about 30 minutes the fixer was on site. 2 people he hit were given serious bundles of cash and he walked into the store and bought the tape (this was about 5 years ago on an older system) from the store.
Had he not been a rich asshole, the first incident would have been felony DUI and felony fleeing the scene of an accident. Second one would have been felony DUI plus an enhancement for 2nd DUI (mandatory jailtime) and another felony for leaving.
To top all this off the guy recently got into an accident where he was the passenger but both of them were like .22 drunk. They were going to get more beer but it was after midnight and the store wouldn't sell it to them so they just took the beer and walked out. This is a guy who could have probably written a check to buy the entire store at that point but was so fucked up that he just stole the beer. The cops were actively looking for them when the driver kissed a concrete divider at about 50. Again though his fixer stepped in with the DA while he was in the hospital and made that theft charge just disappear.
The_Quackening on October 24th, 2018 at 19:46 UTC »
other than the fact that she did.
or is OP saying that she was too drunk to notice that she hit his cars?