“I used to party with him!”

Town Court was interesting. You aren’t allowed to bring your cell phone inside, which it said on the court notice as well as being posted in the lobby of the courthouse. But you’d be amazed at the people who didn’t heed the warning. There were about 4 people ahead of me in line waiting to go through the metal detector that were shocked (SHOCKED!) that they couldn’t bring it in. The look of disbelief on the one guys face was just hilarious. I got through the detector unscathed (sans mobile), signed in at the clerks desk (who was flirting like crazy with 2 of the officers), and took a seat up front like a good and innocent citizen.

The wait was painful. Having never been through the process before I had no idea what was going to happen. I was glad that I chose to sit up front, because I got to see all the characters that were signing in, and listen to some of the plea conversations between the officers and the people they had ticketed. A state trooper who used the corner in front of me as his office called up a woman who was going 92 mph on the thruway. She was trying to play the “I didn’t realize I was going that fast” card and giving him the doe eyes. He seemed annoyed by her antics and said that she wasted her plea bargaining time. He told her he was sticking to the charge against her and to go sit back down until the Judge called her up. This guy was tough! But then his next victim was caught speeding (again, on the thruway) and the guy was nice, non-argumentative, and the officer told him that he would lessen the charge to moving violation (no points, $200 fine).

The cop that pulled me over finally showed up, and called me up to go over my ticket. As I walk up to him, clutching my notice with my nervous white knuckles, he asks if I’ve had any other infractions since the incident. I said no, and that this was my first ever speeding ticket. He then mentions my last name and asked if I knew a Tim. Hoping that it was a good thing, I told him yes, and that he was my brother-in-law. He then proceeds to tell me that they used to hang out in high school, and then wanted to know what he was up too. We talked about him for a couple minutes and the whole time I was freaking out that he was going to uncover some deep seated memory about Tim stealing his girlfriend or something.

Then he asks me, “It’s a shame about your broken speedometer. Did it cost a lot to fix?”. I was momentarily speechless (yes, I’m a little naïve, most of you know that) and then said “oh, not too much”. He said it was the smallest charge he could give me for the violation and if that was ok. Happy that I wasn’t getting any points on my license, I said it was fine. He then told me that when the judge calls me up, to agree to the charge and then all I need to do was pay the fine. Cool.

I sat back down, opened my wallet to see how much cash I had on me (only $70) and waited for my name to be called up to the judge. He called my name, I went up, he asked if I was pleading to the mechanical malfunction violation, I said yes, and then he said it would be a fine of $75. Could I pay it now or did I need a promise to pay. I have no idea what I was thinking but I said that I was $5 short, and that I would need a promise to pay. He laughed and crossed out my fine and wrote $70. The few officers that were up at the bench waiting for their cases chuckled and one officer said in my ear that I should have said I only had $20. I gave him a smile, took my bill and paid the clerk.

All in all an interesting experience. I don’t want to go back anytime soon, but it was a fun way to spend an hour on a Wednesday night.