Is Reckless Driving a Felony?
You may have heard a lot about a reckless driving ticket. You could have heard that some individuals have received this form of ticket as a traffic violation and was able to take care of it in court in maybe one or two court appearances. But then you may have also heard that a reckless driving offense can be something more serious. You may wonder, is reckless driving a felony?
Reckless driving could be considered a felony or a class A criminal misdemeanor in Illinois. It all depends on whether the driver is dealing with a charge of aggravated reckless driving or reckless driving. In Illinois, aggravated reckless driving is a felony while reckless driving is a class A criminal misdemeanor. They are two different offenses with two different penalties associated with it. Felony reckless driving is not defined as excessive speeding or disregarding red lights per say. Pursuant to Illinois law, the following situations of reckless driving will be considered a felony:
1. The driver drove a vehicle in a “willful or wanton disregard” for the safety of other people and property, or
2. The driver knowingly drove a vehicle and used an incline on the roadway such as a bridge approach, a hill or railroad crossing to cause the driver’s vehicle to be airborne, and
3. This resulted in bodily harm to a child or to a school crossing guard while on the job or caused great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement to another.
If the facts above apply to an incident, then the driver is guilty of a class 4 felony by the acts of his or her reckless driving pursuant to Illinois law. If the facts above apply (#1 and #2) and the result has caused great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement to another person, Illinois law states that the driver is guilty of aggravated reckless driving, which is a class 4 felony. Reckless driving causing bodily harm to a child or a school crossing guard while the guard is performing his or her duties as a school crossing guard means the driver is guilty also of a class 4 felony.
A class 4 felony is the least serious class of felonies in Illinois, but the consequences are still serious. A class 4 felony is punishable by up to 1 to 3 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and fines of up to $25,000.00. There can be an extended term sentence of 3 to 6 years in prison if aggravating factors exist such as existing prior criminal convictions, the sentence being necessary to deter others to commit the same crime, the victim being over 60 years old, the crime was itself a hate crime as well as other aggravating factors that can be found in 730 ILCS 5/5-5-3.2(a). All of this means a driver can be sentenced to Illinois prison instead of the County jail by being convicted of a class 4 felony. Obviously, a felony on one’s record can be devasting as well for future employment opportunities, pursuing educational opportunities and obtaining governmental loan or financial assistance. On top of all of this, an aggravated reckless driving conviction means that the defendant’s driver’s license will be suspended or revoked. When I say defendant, I mean the individual charged with a class 4 or aggravated reckless driving offense.
So, as you can see, reckless driving can be considered a class 4 felony. However, it can also be considered a class 3 felony as well. A class 3 felony has more severe consequences. If a driver drove a vehicle in a “willful or wanton disregard” for the safety of other people and property or used an incline to cause the vehicle to go airborne and that led to great bodily harm or permanent disability or disfigurement to a child or a school crossing guard, then the driver is guilty of a class 3, aggravated reckless driving felony. Note, that the school crossing guard must be on the job performing his or her official duties as a school crossing guard to meet this class 3 felony requirement. Class 3 felonies are punishable by 2 to 5 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections and a fine of up to $25,000.00. Additionally, a class 3 felony could contain an extended term sentence in prison of 5-10 years if aggravating factors exist.
Keep in mind that a felony reckless driving charges differ from a criminal class A misdemeanor reckless driving offense. Class A misdemeanor reckless driving that is not aggravated is punishably by up to 1 year in the County jail and fines of up to $2,500.00. There must not be any harm caused to another person or property in order for a reckless driving offense to be brought as a class A misdemeanor. The non felony version threshold is the driver just drove recklessly. Therefore, if a driver drives in a “willful or wanton disregard” for the safety of other people and property or uses an incline on the roadway while knowingly driving which caused the car to go airborne then the driver will generally be ticketed with a class A misdemeanor reckless driving offense. I say “ticketed” because misdemeanor reckless driving offenses are often brought by an officer giving the driver a “reckless driving ticket”. Class A reckless driving tickets will most likely be issued by the arresting officer at the time of the incident. These reckless driving misdemeanor tickets are given often and the law defining this offense is interpreted broadly. It is probably pretty obvious that the “willful or wanton” disregard of others or property portion of the law is pretty broad. I will discuss more about this standard below, but the officer has in his or her own discretion the full ability to issue misdemeanor reckless driving citations based on this threshold. Therefore, if a driver was even speeding and taking over or bypassing other vehicles frequently on the roadway then an argument can be made in the officer’s viewpoint that the driver was driving recklessly. I have seen reckless driving citations be issued because a driver was changing lanes more frequently than normal to bypass other vehicles. In this instance, an officer as interpreted this act as a driver disregarding the safety of others or their property on the roadway and issued a misdemeanor reckless driving ticket thereafter. The benefit of a class A misdemeanor reckless driving offense vs. a felony version of it means that one can be eligible for Court supervision and is subject to less harsh punishments.
Trust me, one will know if they are charged with a felony or misdemeanor reckless driving. Misdemeanor reckless driving is routinely issued in the form of a police citation on the road right after the driver gets pulled over. Often, the driver will not be booked and processed. In contrast, felony aggravated reckless driving offenses will most likely be brought in the form of a Criminal Complaint like all other felony offenses. This process typically calls for the prosecutor to screen the offense before being brought. The document looks more formal for purposes of court documents and will state a narrative of what the defendant is accused of doing. A police citation generally will not. It is possible for a driver to be ticketed with “regular” reckless driving but then have the offense later enhanced to felony aggravated reckless driving. This can be due to subsequent investigation showing that the act has caused bodily harm to another individual or property. A defendant will know that the offense has been enhanced to a felony reckless driving because he or she will be served with the complaint and arraigned on the new charge.
Like all criminal offenses, there can be defenses possible to a felony reckless driving offense. If one is charged with aggravated reckless driving, some defenses can be made such as the following:
1. No bodily harm was caused to a child or a school crossing guard.
2. No great bodily harm was caused to another individual.
3. No permanent disability or disfigurement to another was caused.
4. No great bodily harm was caused to a child or to a school crossing guard while performing his or her official duties or there was no permanent disability or disfigurement caused to either of them.
5. That the defendant did not drive recklessly.
6. That the defendant was not the driver.
This is not an exhaustive list. If one can present evidence proving the above, then this can be a great opportunity to have the felony reckless driving be amended to a class A misdemeanor reckless driving or dismissed altogether based on the defenses present. When requesting an amendment from a felony reckless driving to a misdemeanor, the defendant is admitting that he or she still committed the offense of reckless driving but did not commit the aggravating factors. The prosecutor has to agree to an amendment.
As stated on #5 above, the defendant can present evidence that he or she never even committed the offense of reckless driving to begin with. One way to accomplish this is by the defendant presenting evidence that he or she never drove a vehicle in a “willful or wanton disregard” for the safety of other people or property. I keep mentioning “willful or wanton” and rightfully so, you may wonder what that even means. That is a good question. “Willful or wanton” can be viewed essentially as conduct by an individual that shows an actual or deliberate intention to cause harm or it can also mean some form of utter indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of other people or their property. It is a form of conduct that is required to prove reckless behavior. Therefore, by this meaning of “willful or wanton”, one must be intending to cause harm to others or must be acting so negligently or recklessly towards the safety of others or property to be guilty reckless driving. As you can see, one can be accused of acting recklessly even without an intent element. For example, an argument for the prosecution can be that because the defendant was speeding 70 mpg over the limit, he or she acted with such negligence towards the safety of others even though there is no intent by the defendant to cause harm.
If an argument can be made in trial that the defendant never drove in a “willful or wanton” disregard towards the safety of others or their property, then a dismissal may be in line. As discussed earlier, this definition of “reckless” behavior is broad. It will be up to a judge or jury to decide whether reckless behavior was committed while driving based on the facts surrounding the incident. A judge or jury may find a not guilty verdict for the defendant based on no “willful or wanton” conduct being present. If the defendant was just merely speeding over the limit by 15 mph on the roadway and was charged with reckless driving, then it is possible to make the argument that just the mere speeding is not considered reckless driving. The whole can be crumpled thereafter against the defendant. Again, it will be up to the judge or jury to decide the facts surrounding the driving and whether it constitutes reckless driving. If the complaint accused the defendant of causing his or her car to go airborne while knowingly driving by using an incline on the roadway, then that is a different standard and the “willful or wanton” conduct will not need to be proved by the prosecution. The point is that if a defendant can argue he or she never drove recklessly, then the felony reckless driving charge can be dismissed either after trial or by the prosecutor after presenting all the evidence to the prosecutor. A strategy must be discussed with an experienced, criminal defense attorney regrading if a defendant will be able to prove that he or she never drove recklessly.
When going up against felony offenses in Court, having a criminal defense lawyer will prove to mean everything. Defendant’s will want to have a proper strategy in place. Criminal offenses in court can be lengthy, especially a felony charge. Thorough review of all charging documents, discovery, and possible further investigation will need to be done by the criminal defense attorney to formulate the best defense possible. For aggravated reckless driving, the prosecution needs to prove every element of the case. The prosecution needs to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed the act of aggravated reckless driving for the defendant to be found guilty of the crime. That means if one element cannot be proved by the prosecution, then the defendant must be acquitted. For instance, if the prosecution cannot prove that the defendant was driving the vehicle or bodily harm was caused, then the defendant will most likely not be found guilty for aggravated reckless driving. However, keep in mind, the defendant can still be found guilty of a lesser offense of the non-aggravated version of the crime, which is the class A misdemeanor reckless driving offense.
So, even though reckless driving can be a felony, one should not panic. Evidence may be in the defendant’s favor showing that the aggravating factors are not present such as no bodily harm being caused. Or the defendant never drove in a reckless fashion to begin with. Additionally, it may be in the defendant’s best interest to take a plea deal if the evidence is stacked up against the defendant. The defendant can always request an amendment from a felony reckless driving to a misdemeanor if favorable mitigation can be presented to the prosecution or if the defendant has a good record. The prosecution will most likely check with the alleged victim before deciding if an amendment is proper.
Since the stakes are high in felony offenses, there should be no shortcuts made by a criminal defense attorney. Our law firm are criminal defense experts, and we can help you if you have been charged with a felony offense such as aggravated reckless driving. Give us a call immediately to discuss your case. We represent individuals charged with aggravated reckless driving in DuPage County, Kane County, Will County and Cook County.