What you are charged with

When the prosecution brings a case, they charge the defendant with a crime. The prosecution can charge the defendant with anything they want. The defendant could be arrested for drunk driving and the prosecution could charge them with murder one, even though no one died or even got hurt from the drunk driving. Granted the above example is extreme and highly unlikely to ever happen.

However, what is more likely is that the prosecution will charge the defendant with a number of different crimes. The prosecution does this for a number of reasons. One, is that without all the evidence that would be determined during a full investigation leading up to the trial the prosecution does not know what crimes could be proven, so the prosecutor includes a laundry list. Two, the prosecution is attempting to scare the defendant into a plea deal by showing them how much they could be charged with. The later is in reality the stronger reason for a prosecutor to charge a large number of crimes as during the negotiations certain charged crimes will likely be dropped and in the end the defendant will hopefully only serve a sentence for the actual crime he or she committed, no the laundry list put forward by the prosecution.

A final word regarding charged crimes, while a person can be charged with any crime after being arrested the prosecution will generally only charge the defendant with the crimes which he or she believes can be proven at trial.