Nov 21 2007
It’s all about money
I got a ticket for failing stop at the stop sign. I thought the chubby cop needed to fill her quota, and it’s a 3 points ticket plus fine, so I went to the court to fight it. It’s my first time since the new village hall’s been built. The story behind it was that was about to be built a long time ago but it didn’t happen. Then a generation later, the son of the original architect fulfilled the dream. It was spotless and elegant. After we signed in, the prosecutor called each of us up, primarily offering a plead bargain. Mine was as a parking ticket since I have a clean record. How much is a parking? She replied, “oh, I don’t know. That’s up to the judge.” Way back I paid $50 or so on a similar case.
As we were patiently waiting for the honorable judge, a woman got into rather stupid argument with the sharp prosecutor over her 6 points ticket: she was driving without license (left at home) and speeding at 42 on a school 20-mile zone. She dressed nicely but spoke like “I have no clue”. Apparently the denty blond prosecutor didn’t have the balls to tell her why don’t you just shut up, instead she said ‘to deal with the judge’. Didn’t know the out come since I left before hers was called. The slow-mo ailing Act Village Jutice took his sweet time to decide each case, awarded me a $85 without $55 surcharge. Not sure if I got a sweet deal - last year I parked at a garage on 50th @ Lexington, the charge was $68 for few hours (not sure about that either, :)- so the $85 wasn’t all that bad - but felt the judge was a mover/shaker making deals then dishing out justice.