My Day in Court

Today I had my court date stemming from my speeding incident a couple months ago. My summons told me to show up at 8:45 a.m. today at the St. Mary's County Courthouse in Leonardtown, so you better believe I was there ready to go at 8:15. Here's the thing- courtroom #1 (my hearing location) had a sign that says it opens at 9:00. I sat down on the bench next to a polite-looking women and offered up a sympathetic "Speeding ticket?" Sure enough, that's what brought her there as well.

We agreed that they really seem to have stepped up the ticketing around here. I lamented that I had been driving for 13 years without incident, then I was pulled over twice in a four-day span. She said "Well, I've been driving for a lot longer than 13 years without getting pulled over, and I got pulled over five times in two months." Turns out that she had received a speeding ticket (equal in dubiousness to mine- by which I mean legit, but unnecessary) and forgot to go to her court date. Then, she was pulled over for running a red light (that she insists was definitely yellow- I give her the benefit of the doubt). Since she had failed to appear in court, there was a warrant for her arrest, and the officer loaded her into the police car and took her to jail, where her husband had to come bail her out. Now, this was almost funny because while the waiting room ran the gamut from white-collar workers (dressed in suits and other nice clothes) to standard degenerates (wearing Fubu jackets, saggy jeans and sideways hats with the tags still on (and come on people- you're in court)) she was one of the "me" types.

And that's not the most amazing thing- she works up in Prince George's county, and lives down here in St. Mary's. Her other three incidents all happened after one of her taillights burned out, and she was pulled over leaving work. The officer in PG county gave her an official warning and she continued home. She was then pulled over in Calvert county and given another warning. Just after crossing the bridge into St. Mary's, she was pulled over again. When the officer asked "Do you know why I pulled you over?" she answered "I have a taillight out." He said "So you are knowingly driving with a taillight out?" She replied "Yes, but it just happened and I've been pulled over twice for it already tonight." He said "I see. License and registration please" and proceeded to write her her third warning of the evening. It may not sound like much, but each one of those required her to fill out a form acknowledging the warning and return it to the county court where the citation was issued. So, returning all those was an afternoon down the drain.

Anyway, back to me. It turns out that all of us there in the waiting room were scheduled for 8:45, and if you think about it, that's brilliant. They just tell everyone to be there 15 minutes before they even open, so the county officials have no waiting. By the door there was the day's official docket, and it looks like we were all there for the same charge, and all for the same officer. And that makes sense too- everyone says that the officer probably won't show up, but it looks like he had 30-some cases in a row, so he'll probably be there.

So, shortly after nine they opened the doors and told us to line up. We then walked up to the clerk, who asked me "Do you want to contest the charge, do community service or pay the fine?" Turns out it would be 8 hours of community service, or an $80 "donation" (on top of the $80 fee) to make the ticket go away. I decided, screw it, I'm just going to pay. The quick math says that my freedom is worth $10 an hour, and I just wanted to be done with it. So I went and payed it without knowing if my cop ever showed up. However, there were several officers in the waiting room as I went by, and since they were all short, fit white men with buzz haircuts, I couldn't tell if one of them was my cop if my life depended on it.

And that's that- I am $160 lighter and it's like my ticket never happened. Since I'm not going back to work until Monday I spent the rest of the day working out at the drill hall (where we were evacuated when the fire alarms went off- hopefully it'll be there Saturday) and playing Wii. I started the Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess and spent the better part of the day on it- and you can know that, but when you save your game and it tells you "Time played: 5:36" it really drives the point home. And then I start thinking "Gee, there's a lot of chores that I really should do." Whatever. I'm on vacation.

The moral of the story is don't forget your court date.