aitah for considerinf leaving my son in the county jail hospital over the weekend instead of paying $9,500.00 in bail?

[u/ShowerElectrical9342]

My son hit a pregnant woman with his vehicle and broke his nose and has stitches on his lip.

He was arrested and is in the county jail hospital. He wouldn't tell me how badly injured the woman is, except that she might lose the baby.

He's a careless, distracted driver who has totalled 2 cars, which his bio dad immediately replaced with even better cars!

But now his bio dad is gone (heart attack) and I don't want to enable this dangerous driving problem.

I'm overwhelmed.

He has had accidents before, and has always been bailed out.

I'm trying to get a regular lawyer because now he says she might lose the baby and sue him.

He's 19.

But no one wants me to take the time to get a regular lawyer instead of this public defender who insists I must send the bail money NOW or my son will be in jail all weekend.

Honestly, I don't know. Maybe that would be good for him. Like a wakeup call.

He didn't mention alcohol, but why else would he he arrested for a car accident?

Help! I have to move fast!

AITAH for even thinking about letting him spend a weekend in jail?

[u/Glum-Fennel-7241]

First off … he just got arrested .. he doesn’t have a public defender yet. Secondly .. a public defender is not going to tell you that you must send 9500 or he will spend the weekend in the jail. You probably got this information through your son who said it came from a public defender. The way the system works is you contact a bail bondsman and pay them a percentage of what the bail is and they bond them out. So if $9500 is what the bondsman wants the bail is probably $100-200k. Let him sit in jail and don’t answer his calls for a while. The lies will start getting bigger and bigger .. he will say anything to manipulate you so you will get him out. The next one will probably be that folks are beating up on him .. or threatening to kill him.