Walking On Highway Charge After Leaving Scene As Passenger In Dui Location: Ny

Location: New York. I was recently a passenger in a car involved in a DUI accident.

The driver and I were both detained by police, but I am being charged solely with “Walking on a Highway” and have a court date soon and would like to make an informed decision about how to proceed.

Mainly, the advice I’m seeking is: “Should I pay for a lawyer?”From some cursory Googling, it seems that if I plead guilty to my specific charge, the maximum penalty would be a fine of $150, which is not bad at all. However, I am worried about being questioned in court and potentially incriminating myself further and getting additional charges; i.e.: abandoning the scene of an accident or making false statements (see below). I certainly do not want to speak to anyone in a way that would incriminate myself or my friend further, but the price of retaining a private attorney is 15-20x higher than the cost of the fine. Must I hire a private attorney for this matter? Do I have the option of appearing in court without a lawyer, pleading guilty, paying the fine and be finished with it all, knowing I’d take the charge?

The night of the incident, I met up with a friend of mine at a bar near his house. We both knew we had different overall plans for the rest of the night, so we just wanted to catch up quickly over a beer and then go our separate ways. After conversing a bit, my friend said our separate respective destinations were in the same general direction, and he offered to give me a ride to my destination and then continue on his way, which I accepted. I didn’t know how much he had to drink before we met up, but soon after he started driving us, he punched the gas to accelerate while attempting to pass a car in front of us, and ended up clipping the rear bumper of this car so aggressively that he flipped his car.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the car he hit from behind while trying to make the pass did not stop after being hit (I don’t know why; I am assuming they didn’t have insurance or they saw the car flip in the rear-view mirror and kept driving). After we both crawled out of the car, we looked at each other and he started walking away from the scene. No words were exchanged as far as I remember.

At this point, I was in shock and did not want to be the only one at the scene of the accident, so I began to walk away as well. Police got to the general vicinity very quickly, and just as a police car pulled up and stopped me, I could see in the distance that my friend had already been apprehended by a separate police car about 100 yards in front of me. At this point, the officers that stopped me began to inquire about my presence, and, as I was scared and confused, I claimed I had been in an Uber going somewhere, but traffic had stopped on the road and I didn’t want to continue to wait, so I exited the Uber and started walking back towards where I left. I don’t think the officers “bought” this because I was covered in blood, which they inquired about, but I stayed silent after they asked this. They then ended up taking me and the driver to the precinct.

I believe the officers figured out fairly quickly what happened, as they questioned the driver first, and about 20 minutes after pulling him from the holding cell, told me that I was free to go, but would be charged with 1229A(A), criminal VTL charge issued on a pink ticket. The driver remained in custody.

I have a court date soon, but, again, I do not know what to expect. If I plead guilty, can I just say I was walking on a highway and pay the fine? Will there be follow up questions? Will the arresting officer be at my court date and be ready to attempt to get me in more trouble or attempt to gather evidence or statements from me which will impact the driver’s charge(s)? Again, most importantly: Do I need a lawyer ?

Apologies for the long post, but any advice would be greatly appreciated.