Our Day In Court

Pretenders to the title of Bestest Cat Around.













D. Chedwick Bryant, the smartest, hippest cat in the land, identified the flowers on my blog yesterday, as foxglove. Thanks Ched, is there anything you don't know?

Some folks wondered about yesterday's comment that I went to work intending to give Randall Bing my notice. Several wondered if that meant I was retiring. I wondered that myself. I think it does. Mrs. Sneed has been goading me to give the notice, mostly because she is weary of my incessant complaining about my crappy job.

As I sit here now, I fully intend to retire on June 30, 2007. However please understand that my decision to retire is like deciding to swim in a cold pool; it is a gradual process that is eased into rather than leaped into. Do not be surprised if I chicken out between then and now.

I can think of a lot of good reason to keep working, mostly centering on the money. On the other hand each unsatisfying day at work, is one I can't get back.

We went to court today, young Sneed and me. It was very stressful for him, but turned out to be a better experience than we thought.

We were in arraignment court. That is where people who have been ordered to appear for criminal traffic violations get to hear the charges and punishments they face, the deals the prosecutor is willing to offer and are given the chance to plead guilty or not, to the charges.

There were approximately 100 people in the courtroom, half defendants and half well-wishers. The first thing you notice about the people present is that they are overwhelmingly non-Anglo, young and poor. We live in a city that is one-third Hispanic, but easily ninety percent of those in the courtroom were Hispanic. This says a lot about our society.

The proceeding kicked off with a lawyer from the Public Defender's office telling all present what the drill would be. He told us that almost everyone present was there because they had committed a moving traffic violation, which lead to the discovery that they had either no license, registration or insurance or some combination of the three. There were three DUI defendants and one guy who was arrested for drag-racing.

The Public Defender called out each name and read the charges. He then explained what that defendant's options were. The most common infraction was no insurance. He told those people that they could plead guilty, get some insurance and the fine would be $108. If they plead not guilty to the charge and could not show proof of insurance within 90 days, they faced a fine of $588. The problem most of these folks face is that the fine is far cheaper than what insurance would cost them. If you are only nailed once a year, it is a deal.

After each person had heard the charges against them, the clerk of the court, called on each to plead. The "not guiltys" were given their next court date and sent home. The "guiltys" made arrangements to pay their fines and their cases were put on hold while they tried to drum up some insurance. The same was true for the no license defendants. Get a license and pay a small fine. No license, big fine.

When the Public Defender called on Son Sneed, he told him that the prosecutor could not offer a plea agreement because they were waiting on test results. We turned and looked at one another. It dawned on us that if they are waiting on test results that don't exist, they don't have a case. Son Sneed turned to me raised his hand and said, "high-five". He could have said it quieter.

We spoke to the public defender in the courtroom about young Sneed's medical issues, he talked to the judge and she assigned Sneed a court-appointed lawyer and sent his case to the court for mentally ill defendants. He will have to schedule an appointment with his lawyer to discuss the case. He has a pretrial conference on June 6, at which time I think they will have to drop the case against him. My very uninformed opinion.

This will leave only the hearing with the Department of Motor Vehicles to contend with. In Arizona if the cops ask you to take a urine or blood test and you refuse or don't complete it, you automatically lose your license for a year, regardless of the validity of the underlying charges.

What I learned in court today is that poor people tend not to have car insurance. That makes perfect sense I guess, given the cost of insurance.

This leads to being caught in a giant whirlpool of legal troubles that drag them down and down. Someone gets caught with no insurance and loses his license. Then he gets caught driving without a license or on a suspended one, with no insurance and it gets deeper and deeper. This is not to excuse the uninsured driver or the driver without a license. They are idiots. Desperate idiots, struggling idiots, but still idiots.

Where I do sympathize with these folks is that the cops tend to pile it on them when they catch them. Almost every defendant had some piss ant ticket for no light on the rear plate or a malfunctioning headlight, in addition to the other charges. This is just the cops being a-holes. When a guy is facing $700 in fines and the probability that he won't be insurable in this century, a citation for a burned out bulb seems excessive.

Anyway, young Sneed is feeling good about where he stands and that is important.

Important Clarification!

Mrs. Sneed just read my post and wants me to correct my assertion that she is tired of my bitching. She would like it known that her only concern is my happiness and that if the job has me down, I should bag it with her blessing.














Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky


Tag: Daily Life
Personal Finance
Humor