I thought I had a good chance of getting my ticket reduced/dismissed so I appealed it, missed my first court date (got the date and time mixed up-whoops), had to post bail for myself (the women at the court just waived it since I didn't seem like "that type of person"), and finally went to my rescheduled court date. It just so happened that it was also the day of a pretty big final so I brought along my textbook to study in courtroom. It was my first time in court and didn't know what to expect. Little did I know, I was also in a room full of other people waiting for their cases to be heard. It wasn't until two hours later did I get to speak to the prosecutor. The police officer who wrote me the ticket wasn't there yet and could take another 3 hours to arrive. I could either wait for him to see if he would dismiss it or take an offer: drop the $66 ticket down to $25 plus a $6 court fee. Some of you might think I'm crazy but I decided to wait for the officer. I didn't have class until later that night and didn't have to be anywhere else.
Although the waiting was grueling, I heard some interesting cases whilst trying to study. The judge was also pretty funny with his sarcasm and dry sense of humor. He reminded me of a mellow version of Judge Judy. One person had received a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt over 8 years ago(!) and hadn't gotten his ticket paid. It built up to a whole bunch of other cases because of it.
There was another case with a single working mother who was also going to school and while I'm not sure what had happened, she had a public defender. At the end, the judge asked when she could pay the public defender and she replied something like a couple weeks. Although the judge empathized with her, he went into this heartfelt speech about how this man (public defender) drove an hour for her so that he could be there at 9am to defend her case (for 4 hours) and was pretty much getting paid nothing. Also, it would personally mean a lot to the judge if she could pay him the next day. He added that the $55 wouldn't even be going to the public defender but to the town and that even a lawyer who gets paid $200+ an hour wouldn't do that. It was pretty moving and I think the defendant was tearing up (either from his speech or having to pay the next day-I joke.)
After waiting for four hours, I spoke with the prosecutor again. He got a hold of the police officer and was informed that he wouldn't be there for another 3 hours! Fortunately, he spoke with the officer and he remembered ticketing my car but didn't recall there being any snow covering the yellow lines. Coming prepared, I showed him the picture from my camera and my case ended up being dismissed with no charges. I guess that waiting did pay off. The exam ended up being one of the most difficult ones I've taken but I ended up doing well in the course. :)
Until next time.
