Criminal mischief in the fourth degree is a Class A misdemeanor under New York Penal Law Section 145.00, punishable by up to 364 days in jail, a fine, probation, and restitution to the property owner. The charge covers four kinds of conduct: intentionally damaging someone else’s property in any amount, recklessly causing damage over $250, helping destroy an abandoned building, or disabling a phone or similar device to stop someone from calling for emergency help. If you’re facing this charge in New York, the details of what you did, and what the prosecution can prove about your state of mind, control almost everything that happens next.
The Four Ways You Can Be Charged
Section 145.00 lays out four separate paths to the same misdemeanor. Every one of them requires that you had no right to do what you did and no reasonable ground to believe you did.1New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 145.00 – Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree
The first and broadest version is intentionally damaging someone else’s property. Keying a car, breaking a window, spray-painting a wall, smashing a phone during an argument. The dollar amount does not matter. Minor damage counts as long as it was deliberate.
The second version is participating in the intentional destruction of a building classified as abandoned under New York’s Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law. Stripping copper wiring or fixtures from a vacant structure is the typical example.
The third version is reckless damage over $250. You didn’t set out to break anything, but you acted with such disregard for the risk that more than $250 in damage resulted. The mental state is lower than intent, but the dollar threshold is real.
The fourth version has nothing to do with dollar amounts. If you disable or remove a phone, TTY, or similar device to prevent someone from calling police, fire, or medical services, that alone is the crime. The statute explicitly says an ownership interest in the equipment is no defense. Grabbing your own partner’s phone, or even one you paid for, and smashing it to stop a 911 call qualifies.
What the Prosecution Has to Prove
For three of the four versions, the prosecution must prove you acted intentionally, meaning it was your conscious objective to cause the damage or disable the device. Knocking something off a shelf during an argument, even if it breaks, is not criminal mischief.
The reckless category works differently. The prosecution has to show you were aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that your conduct would cause more than $250 in damage, and you ignored it. Throwing heavy objects around a room full of electronics without caring what they hit is the textbook scenario.
Sitting above all four versions is the “no right” clause. If you genuinely and reasonably believed you had permission to alter, remove, or destroy the property, that belief cuts against the charge at its foundation. The belief has to be reasonable, not just sincere.1New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 145.00 – Criminal Mischief in the Fourth Degree
When the Charge Becomes a Felony
Fourth-degree criminal mischief sits at the bottom of the ladder, and the line to the next rung is a single word. Criminal mischief in the third degree, Penal Law Section 145.05, is a Class E felony. You cross into felony territory when you intentionally damage another person’s property and the damage exceeds $250. Reckless damage over $250 stays a misdemeanor. Intentional damage over $250 becomes a felony. Prosecutors know exactly where that line is when they decide what to charge.2New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 145.05 – Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree
Penalties If You’re Convicted
As a Class A misdemeanor, the charge carries a maximum of 364 days in a local jail. New York moved the ceiling down from 365 days to 364 to keep the sentence below the federal immigration threshold of “a year or more,” but the practical effect for anyone convicted is a possible near-year in custody.3New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 70.15 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Misdemeanors and Violations
Instead of jail, a judge can impose two or three years of probation with conditions like regular check-ins, community service, or an anger management program. Violating probation puts the original jail sentence back on the table.4New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 65.00 – Sentence of Probation
The maximum fine is $1,000, or up to double any gain you made from the offense if the court finds you profited. The two are alternatives, not additions.5New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 80.05 – Fines for Misdemeanors and Violations
On top of any fine, every misdemeanor conviction in New York triggers a mandatory $175 surcharge and a $25 crime victim assistance fee, totaling $200. Judges cannot waive them.6New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 60.35 – Mandatory Surcharge, Crime Victim Assistance Fee
The court is also required to consider restitution to the victim. Restitution covers the actual documented cost of repairing or replacing the damaged property and is paid to the victim, separate from any fine paid to the state.7New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 60.27 – Restitution and Reparation
Getting the Case Dismissed With an ACD
For many first-time defendants, the realistic best outcome is an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, or ACD. The court adjourns the case without a return date, and if you stay out of trouble for six months, the charge is automatically dismissed. In family offense cases the waiting period is one year. A dismissed charge is not a conviction.
An ACD can carry conditions: a temporary order of protection, dispute resolution, community service, or a family violence program in domestic cases. If the prosecution persuades the judge within the waiting period that dismissal would not serve justice, the case returns to the calendar and proceeds normally.8New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 170.55 – Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal
Defenses That Actually Work
Lack of intent is the most direct defense. Because the intentional versions of the statute require a conscious objective to cause damage, evidence that what happened was accidental defeats the charge. Surveillance video, witnesses, or proof the property was already damaged can all pull the case apart.
Claim of right is built into the statute itself. If you had a reasonable basis to believe you had authority to do what you did, whether that’s throwing out belongings you thought were yours or altering a space you shared, the charge fails on its own terms.
Necessity is narrower but real. Breaking a car window to rescue a child trapped inside on a hot day is the classic example. The threat has to be immediate, you must have had no reasonable alternative, and the harm you caused has to be less than the harm you prevented.
Immigration Exposure for Non-Citizens
The 364-day cap exists because federal immigration law treats a “crime involving moral turpitude” punishable by a year or more as a deportation trigger. Keeping the maximum at 364 days pulls most Class A misdemeanors below that line, and a standalone fourth-degree criminal mischief conviction generally does not clear the federal threshold on its own.
That protection is not absolute. Domestic violence offenses, controlled substance offenses, and firearm offenses carry immigration consequences independent of sentence length. Multiple convictions for crimes involving moral turpitude can also trigger removal. If the alleged damage happened in a domestic context, a non-citizen should treat the charge as urgent and involve an immigration attorney alongside criminal defense counsel.3New York State Senate. New York Penal Law 70.15 – Sentences of Imprisonment for Misdemeanors and Violations
Sealing the Conviction Later
A conviction creates a permanent criminal record, but New York offers two ways to seal it.
Under CPL Section 160.59, you can apply to seal an eligible conviction ten years after sentencing or release from incarceration, whichever is later. You can seal up to two eligible convictions, no more than one of them a felony. Fourth-degree criminal mischief qualifies. The court weighs rehabilitation, community ties, and the nature of the offense before granting the application.9New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 160.59 – Sealing of Certain Convictions
New York’s Clean Slate Act, effective November 2024, adds automatic sealing. Misdemeanor records become eligible three years after sentencing or release, whichever is later, as long as you’re not on probation or parole and have no pending cases. A new conviction resets the clock. Full implementation is expected by November 2027, so delays are likely in the meantime.10New York State Courts. New York State’s Clean Slate Act
Sealing is not erasure. Law enforcement and certain licensing agencies can still see sealed records. For most private employers and landlords running standard background checks, a sealed conviction will not show up.