This section sets penalties for damaging traffic signs, public buildings, or public property, including fines, misdemeanor/felony classifications, parental liability for minors’ intentional damage, and cleanup orders for convicted minors.
(a) A person who is convicted of violating subsection (a) of Section 13A-8-71 shall be fined not more than fifty dollars ($50). (b) A person who is convicted of intentionally destroying, knocking down, removing, defacing, or altering a traffic sign pursuant to subsection (c) of Section 13A-8-71 or defacing a public building or public property pursuant to subsection (d) of Section 13A-8-71, where the damage inflicted is more than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), is guilty of a Class C felony. (c) A person who is convicted of intentionally destroying, knocking down, removing, defacing, or altering a traffic sign pursuant to subsection (c) of Section 13A-8-71 or defacing a public building or public property pursuant to subsection (d) of Section 13A-8-71, where the damage inflicted is more than five hundred dollars ($500), but less than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. (d) A person who is convicted of intentionally destroying, knocking down, removing, defacing, or altering a traffic sign pursuant to subsection (c) of Section 13A-8-71 or defacing a public building or public property pursuant to subsection (d) of Section 13A-8-71, where the damage inflicted is less than five hundred dollars ($500) is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. (e) The parents of a minor under the age of 18 years with whom the minor is living and who have custody of the minor shall be liable for actual damages, plus court costs, for the destruction or defacement of any public road sign or the defacement of any public building or public property by the intentional acts of the minor. (f) Any minor who is convicted of violating this article shall be ordered by the court to correct or clean up any destruction or defacement of which the minor has been convicted.