what are the possible outcomes of my son’s charges (DUI and Simple Assault)

Location: Harford County, Maryland (DUI)
Location: York, Pennsylvania (Assault)

I am soliciting pure legal opinion and not personal opinion about what you may perceive to be my son’s character or morals.

DUI: My son (19 yo) said he was parked irregularly (“kind of in the middle of the road”)in a neighborhood that had an officer on patrol when he spotted my son parked in a way that im assuming no sober person would on in the street. The officer approached him and came to find out there was alcohol in the vehicle and that my son seemed to be intoxicated. There, he received the DUI. There is more information I’ve yet to find out like whether or not he refused to have his BAC tested or do any of the other tests but I believe he said he refused to comply with the testing🤦‍♀️.
This occurred in Harford County, MD but his drivers license is from Pennsylvania. Im curious what the repercussions are like if you get a DUI across state lines as well.

Simple Assault: My son got into a heated argument with one of his friends/employees in the car and his friend began berating him and then slapped him while he was driving. This hurt my son’s ego, so he pulled over and he ultimately ended up fighting back. However, this became a two against one situation when one of his other friends in the car came to my son’s defense and punched the guy who hit my son leading him to fall down. Then, to top it all off, my son took his anger out on the guy while he was already on the ground and began kicking him multiple times, injuring him pretty severely. This was caught on a passerby’s dash cam and was reported to the police which caught up with my son and his friend. Officer said that he could tell it was a petty dude fight gone too far and took it from aggravated assault down to simple assault. Nevertheless, it’s assault and it still was poor conduct on my sons behalf with the way he handled his emotions.

I am concerned about the outcome of both of these cases and how they will affect his life now and in the future.

It PAINS me to think he could end up doing time. He has his own moving company that has been doing exceptionally well and he is saving for a bright future but this has all been a major setback :(
There is no money in our pockets for lawyers so we will be going the public defender route.

Can any of you use your best judgment on what the outcomes could be for him based on what information I’ve given? I am happy to answer any more questions.
He has chosen to take full responsibility and plead guilty for both charges.

  1. What is entailed in the ARD and would completion of that allow him to get off jail free?

2. How much time MAX could he face for this first offense DUI? he didn’t cause any accidents or reckless driving per say, he was just parked idiotically)

3. What would be his best route to go in getting the minimum sentence for his assault charge?(The victim is doing okay)

4. When pleading guilty to a simple assault case like this one, what is the likely amount of jail time he could receive and what could you expect to be the MAX amount of time?

  1. Is there any way out of jail time regarding the DUI?

  2. Is there any way out of jail time regarding the assault?

Thank You for helping a stressed out mom. This has upended our lives and my baby has harshly learned his lesson. I just hope to hear honest thoughts on what this all combined may look like for him and what can I do to help?

Posted Aug 1, 2026, 3:45 AM UTC

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