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KRS 512.030

Criminal mischief in the second degree

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case A.E. v. Commonwealth (1993)

Most recently applied in In the Matter of the Honorable Mickey K. Weber, Judge of the Clarksville Town Court (December 2014)

Effective: June 27, 2025 History: Amended 2025 Ky

How often courts cite this section

199320002010201420
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the second degree when, having no right to do so or any reasonable ground to believe that he or she has such right, he or she:

(a) Intentionally or wantonly defaces, destroys, or damages any property causing pecuniary loss of less than five hundred dollars ($500);

(b) As a tenant, intentionally or wantonly defaces, destroys, or damages residential rental property causing pecuniary loss of less than five hundred dollars ($500); or (c) As a squatter, intentionally or wantonly defaces, destroys, or damages real property causing a pecuniary loss of less than five hundred dollars ($500).

(2) Criminal mischief in the second degree is a Class A misdemeanor, unless:

(a) The offense occurs during a declared emergency as defined by KRS 39A.020 arising from a natural or man-made disaster, within the area covered by the emergency declaration, and within the area impacted by the disaster, in which case it is a Class D felony; or (b) The defendant at any time prior to trial effects repair or replacement of the defaced, destroyed, or damaged property, makes complete restitution in the amount of the damage, or performs community service as required by the court, in which case it is a Class B misdemeanor. The court shall determine the number of hours of community service commensurate with the total amount of monetary damage caused by or incidental to the commission of the crime, of not less than fifteen (15) hours.

Official source: Kentucky General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Kentucky statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.