Cyde Weys Musings

I just got back from Prince Georges District Court. A month and a half ago, I was pulled over for “operating an unregistered motor vehicle” — an offense with a fine of $280. The officer who pulled me over at the time said it was highly advantageous for me to go to court, because these fines are frequently substantially reduced. I should also point out that the registration on the car was about a month expired, not that it had never been registered. The car is owned and registered by my parents, and I guess they never forwarded the re-registration notice to me, or whatever. I’ll say how my charge ended up being resolved at the end of this post. But first, some of the other interesting things that happened in court.

The court is very big on decorum. Everyone had to rise as “The Honorable Judge So-and-so, Presiding” entered the room. The courthouse interior was very nice, which sharply contrasted with the look of the neighborhood it was embedded in. A lot of taxpayer money was spent on making the interior “illustrious”. The courtroom was just considering minor traffic offenses today. The largest offense there was a charge of reckless driving, but the guy ended up getting off with a suspended sentence and no points off his license provided he completed a two night driver re-education class. The largest fine I saw was a fine of $1,000 for, get this, driving without glasses. I sort of saw the judge’s eyes grow wide as he read the charge and said that he definitely understood why the defendant had chosen to appear in court, and that if he was the defendant, he’d stay in court all day if necessary. He even took time to lecture everyone still remaining in the courtroom, telling us that if we were ever fined so much money over such a little offense, we should contest it in court too. The guy ended up getting off with a $50.00 fine plus $25.50 in court costs. He was positively beaming as he left the courtroom.

The vast majority of the people there had signed “guilty with explanation” on their tickets before mailing them in, and showed up only to offer explanations for their violations, not try to contest them. In a guilty admission mailed to the courthouse, the charging police officer is not present, and no trial is conducted. Three people who had signed guilty did end up wanting a trial, so they had shown up for nothing and would have to re-appear at a later date when the police officer was present. The fines were all very reasonable, with most people getting between $30 and $50 plus $25.50 court costs. The numbers were certainly substantial reductions off of the prices that were listed on the tickets, so the judge was very nice. Also, a few police officers failed to show up, so a few people who hadn’t signed “guilty with explanation” on their tickets ended up getting off scot-free.

The crowd continued dwindling from its initial forty-or-so down to finally just four people left. We were the only people whose police officers had showed up. Two others pleaded guilty and ended up facing fines of $50.00 + $25.50 or so. But another student and I, both with the same police officer, made the smart move and pleaded not guilty. So out of 40 people who showed up, only two people were going to go on trial. However, as the judge was shuffling around papers or whatnot getting ready to begin the trials, my police officer (who is an officer with the University of Maryland Police Department) comes over and talks with me. He asks to see proof of updated registration, which I have, and briefly talks with the other student (whose charge I didn’t hear). Then, right before the trial begins, the police officer says to the judge that he’s just talked with us and worked things out, and that he didn’t have any evidence to present. So my fine was reduced from $280 to $0, not guilty, “and you’re free to go”. Excellent.

I suppose the moral of the story is, don’t plead guilty to minor offenses. If I had pleaded guilty on the ticket, I would have showed up in court on an earlier day when my cop was not present, and he wouldn’t have been there to let me off. Of if I had pleaded guilty to the judge rather than not guilty I also would have ended up paying a fine. And if I hadn’t shown up in court at all I’d have had to pay $280. Yeouch. As it was, the experience was pleasant. The judge was nice, the campus police officer was very nice, and I only ended up paying $3.00 for parking. This contrasts completely with the only other time I’ve been in court, which was in Virginia (also on a traffic thing). That other experience can only be described as judicial highway robbery. I like the justice system in Maryland a lot more.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 10:41 and is filed under Maryland, Personal. Keywords: Tags: College Park, court, fine, justice system, Maryland, Personal, pleading not guilty, Prince Georges County, ticket, traffic ticket, University of Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.