MILWAUKEE — It’s been nearly one month since the crash that destroyed Andre Richards' business and left him with injuries he's still recovering from.
Police say the crash was the result of a 28-year-old driving under the influence.
Information obtained from our open records request shows the driver was only handed a citation for property damage due to OWI.
We wanted to know why the penalties weren't harsher for Richard’s injury and totaled truck.
TMJ4 brought that question to personal injury lawyer, Jeff Zirgibel.
“It’s frustrating for him because if he's injured, or he has bodily harm, which is any physical pain or injury, that would be a misdemeanor and the person could be charged,” Zirgibel said.
The attorney shared that charges are largely dependent on the injury report given at the scene. Since Richards wasn't taken by ambulance to get checked out at the hospital the incident report said there were no injuries.
“When people are injured at the scene, they know what an ambulance ride costs, they know what it costs to go to the hospital, they don't want to incur those charges unnecessarily,” explained Zirgibel.
He said whatever is recorded at the scene largely affects charges in cases like these.
“I always recommend to my clients, friends, and family that you should tell police at the scene and if they're not going to mark the report as you're injured because you didn't take an ambulance ride, you should really take the ambulance ride.”
If those injuries were reported it's possible the driver would have been charged with a misdemeanor.
TMJ4 tried to contact the driver who was cited for comment about the crash but didn't hear back.
That driver is due in court next month to pay a $961 dollar fine.
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