My Day in Court

Yesterday was my day in court. I was awarded a traffic ticket about 6 weeks ago. I'm thinking it was because I won. All those other cars were falling behind and I got to the stop light first. The only guy who could keep up was on this motorcycle and he was a cop... OK 42 in a 30 was a bit excessive.... I still won and got my award. So off to court I go. I've always found court interesting. My last ticket that I'm admitting to was back in 1973 since then and until today I was only in court for jury duty. Having to be in the cast of characters once every 33 years is OK but there is never a good time for this type of thing.... mostly because it usually costs money. Back in 1973 I was in court for the same thing I was in 2006, speeding. I don't remember how much I was over the speed limit in 1973 but I do remember when I went to court I had to pay a fine of $15 and that included court costs. Yesterday I had to pay a fine of $75 plus $15 in court costs and an additional $50 for tuition to driving school. Total $140. I was, however, allowed to put it on my credit card and didn't have to pay a surcharge which was a surprise to me. At court we have the judge who was a woman about 40 years old or so, a Assistant District Attorney who was in his 40's also and all us law breakers armed with our check books. The judge explained to everyone about their rights and what type of plea a person can make in her court.... Not guilty. Guilty. No contest. She explained that the sentence for guilty and no contest would be the same but with a no contest plea you were not saying you did anything wrong your just saying your not going to argue and will pay the fine. Of course it still counts against you just like you had said, "I be guilty, I did it and I have no excuse." This was the 10:30 performance. Apparently there was also an 8:30 performance as the first lawbreaker in front of the judge was a teenager who was supposed to be in court at 8:30. The judge asked the teen why he wasn't in court at 8:30 and he said he over slept. She told him to go sit down and she would take care of business with him AFTER she finished with the players of the 10:30 drama. He said to her, ".... but I have to be at work in 30 minutes." She said, "You should have gotten out of bed and been in court on time then... have a seat." Ah, justice is truly blind. Next was a older gentleman who was given a ticket for having 2 dogs "at large" and also given a 2nd ticket for interfering with an Animal Control Officer. He was armed with a brief case full of documents and had a bunch of questions for the judge. Basically he felt he was innocent but in order to get a trial he would have to plead "not guilty" and he was reluctant to do that. So he hemmed and hawed and asked the same question 6 different ways. The judge finally told him that he would have to make a plea.... he just stood there and the judge just sat there. Finally after about 45 seconds he said he was sorry to take the courts time but would have to plead not guilty. He wanted to continue to discuss this with the judge but she wasn't hear'n any of it. She set a court date for the 1st of Feb. The 'ol guy slowly picked up his brief case and left the court room. I kinda felt sorry for him and it would have been interesting to hear what happened that brought him to court that day. I might add, the judge said this was his 2nd offense of "dogs at large" and that carried a $250 fine for each dog and for interfearing with the animal control officer could be a fine of $500 for the first offense. Getting into some serious money here. The judge called the names of a few folks that didn't show up. She issued warrants for them. Too bad for them cuz when the cops stop them anywhere in the state they will be arrested without a doubt. If you have a warrant out for you and they come across your sorry butt your next stop is in the slammer. There were a couple of teenage girls that really had a problem. They thought everything was funny. They kept rolling their eyes and whispering to each other. Each one had been cited for a traffic violation and when the judge called them up the ADA said they were not cooperative with the cop who stopped them and didn't have anything nice to say about either one. So instead of the usual $75 fine she hit both of them with $150 fine. They didn't care... made me feel a bit better. Then there was this guy with shaggy blond hair that was like a wired haired terrier. He was wearing a suit but didn't look very comfortable in it. When he got up to the dais I saw that he was wearing his suit pants down on his butt leaving a look like he was carry'n around a bag of shit in his drawers. I thought it made him look pretty stupid.... if your going to dress that way you should wear the cloths like they were made to be worn.... what if some gal wore her bra backward or around her stomach? I'm getting too old for this stuff. Finally it got to be my turn and the judge called out my last name. I stood and at the same time the guy who was sitting next to me stood. We looked at each other and immediately figured out we both shared the same last name. Weird huh. And he was sitting next to me. I shook his hand and then the judge figured it out so gave out the full name of the victim she wanted. Pretty efficient for a government operation. Quickly separated us from our money and sent us on our way.