Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Tennessee criminal defense attorneys assist their clients with reckless endangerment charges in the Knoxville, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and the Gatlinburg areas. Each reckless endangerment case in Tennessee will be different. Tennessee criminal defense lawyers understand that their clients usually lacked malicious intent when the charges were brought.

A person commits reckless endangerment if he or she recklessly engages in conduct that places, or may place, another person in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. To act recklessly is to act with a conscious disregard of the likelihood that the conduct will cause an illegal result. Reckless endangerment is a Class A misdemeanor; however, reckless endangerment committed with a deadly weapon is a Class E felony. Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-103 (2007).

It is interesting to note that no harm is required to be convicted of reckless endangerment in Tennessee. Some examples of conduct that may or may not give rise to reckless endangerment are the following:

• The defendant's conduct in firing shots at a house, where occupants were not his intended victims, constituted reckless endangerment. State v. Wilson, 924 S.W.2d 648 (Tenn. 1996).
• Defendant's mere discharge of a gun into the air or up into a tree top was not sufficient to constitute the commission of reckless endangerment. State v. Fox, 947 S.W.2d 865 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1996).
• Driver who had a couple of drinks and approached a blind curve at night at such speed that he could not stop in time to avoid hitting a car in his lane attempting to make a legal left turn was reckless and was aware of the risk created by his driving, but consciously disregarded it. State v. Lewis, 978 S.W.2d 558 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1997).
• Evidence was sufficient to support reckless endangerment conviction where testimony indicated defendant was driving fifteen to twenty miles over the speed limit and "whipped up into" an unsuspecting man's driveway, such that the man had to run to avoid being run over. State v. Neely, 1 S.W.3d 679 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1999).

Many reckless endangerment charges are brought against drivers, but the offense could be committed in an unlimited different number of situations that do not involve vehicles. If you are charged with either misdemeanor or felony reckless endangerment in Tennessee, contact a Tennessee criminal defense attorney. Tennessee criminal defense attorneys will fight for your rights at every stage of the criminal process. Tennessee criminal defense lawyers will challenge the heavy burden that the state must prove to convict you of a reckless endangerment charge.