Originally Posted by emaw1979 (Post 17466942)

Since there were injuries, it's a felony.

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties (Post 17466956)

Are we sure? The media is all over this. Talking to people who were involved.

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 17467237)

So - best I can figure is TX Trasnp S. 550.021(c) applies here.

You can take 2nd and 3rd degree felony's off the list because they require death (2nd degree) or 'serious bodily injury' as defined by their penal code (3rd degree). Serious bodily injury requires "serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ."

Nothing indicates that is the case at this time.

So that leaves subsection 2 -- any collision that doesn't result in either of the two above. Punishable by not more than 5 years in State jail or a year in county. Fine not to exceed $5,000.

Oddly, it's not identified as a felony, but if its punishable by more than a year in state prison, that's typically classified as a felony offense (at least in Missouri). It looks like in Texas, any offense punishable by confinement in the state pen is a felony, but that's just not how they've written this section even though they expressly referred to felonies and degrees in subsection 1.

I think they reason they specifically did NOT refer to it as a 3rd degree felony is that it appears that the minimum sentence upon conviction of a 3rd degree felony is 2 years. They didn't want that level of floor so they wrote it out of their ordinary statutory scheme. Best guess I've got anyway.

So based on about 5 minutes of digging, it looks like the '10 years' stuff is...well, kinda made up. I'm not seeing that anywhere. I think that's largely because a 3rd degree felony is between 2 and 10 years but this situation (injury but not serious bodily injury as they define it) is specifically written out of that scheme. If they read that this is a possible felony offense and a 3rd degree felony is 2-10 years, that's probably where they got their '10 year' stuff.

Moreover, I think it might leave open the possibility of a misdemeanor charge on the same statute. It feels like they did that on purpose to leave open some prosecutorial discretion here. It's interesting to me that they wrote "or confinement in the county jail for not more than one year" because that's usually the outer bound of a felony charge. You can go to county on a misdemeanor and you can go up to a year on a misdemeanor. So this MIGHT mean that they've given prosecutorial discretion to charge this as a misdemeanor violation and in so doing, simply do it in a way that takes the potential of a prison term (rather than county confinement) off the table.

There are charges that vary between misdemeanor and felony only due to the amount/location of time the prosecutor is looking to get the guy to serve. That's how this looks to me. They get called 'hybrid felonies' a lot of the time in that they can be charged either way.

If I'm guessing, that's what happens here. They might charge him at a felony level (might not) and he pleas down to a misdemeanor on it, gets sentenced to 12 months in county with a suspended sentence.

And all that presumes he was the driver and everyone involved knows it.

Originally Posted by TLO (Post 17467263)

Is there any actual new news?

Originally Posted by loochy (Post 17467271)

of course not.


Why do you think we are making up all of this BS?

Originally Posted by TLO (Post 17467276)

Because you're gay?

Originally Posted by TLO (Post 17467263)

Is there any actual new news?

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88 (Post 17467220)

A 23 year old making questionable decisions is not inherently a crime.

Originally Posted by loochy (Post 17467271)

of course not.


Why do you think we are making up all of this BS?

Originally Posted by Kiimo (Post 17467296)

lmao if anyone thinks they are locking an NFL player up in county for a ****ing year for getting in an accident where nobody was hurt and they can't prove he was drinking or doing anything else

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut (Post 17467299)

Again fellas - SIS. A suspended imposition of sentence. You make him do community service and it goes away. He'd never step foot in jail.

No, i don't think he goes to county. I'm not even sure they'll be THAT hard on him. But I think that's probably the outer limit of what may happen.