If you would have told me two weeks ago that I would be
sitting in the court room today begging my way out of a pricey ticket, I would
have probably bet money against it. I have been pulled over twice, but never
received a ticket. One was a creepy cop known for pulling over young girls in
Chapin. I was on my way home from work one night, when the blue lights lit up
in my rear view mirror. He said I was following a car too closely… I just
smiled and accepted that he was right. The other time was in Aiken when I was
in a hurry to get to happy hour with my roomie. I failed to put my blinker on
to change lanes and park on Aiken’s one way streets, so he gave me a warning
and said don’t do it again. These two small instances were nothing compared to
the car wreck I was in almost two weeks ago now, but anytime a cop has to talk
to me, I’m nervous!
My court time was for 9am, but since it was my first time
(hopefully last) I thought I should get there early. I pulled up to a front row parking place at
the court house at 8:20 with my purse full of junk, Yoplait yogurt and even a
banana. Luckily I was only asked to unzip my purse and not to dump it out. I
passed through the security gate, and followed the signs into the court room.
Intimidating, to say the least, the court room was full of people with the
judge already hard at work. Silly me, I
assumed that it would just be me, the officer and the judge, but to my surprise,
there was a court room full of people. I timidly took a seat in the back of the
court room, while trying not to make too much commotion within the crowed of
people. There was an older white female up front speaking on behalf of herself
claiming that she was not guilty for running a stop sign. The judge was an old
white male, who was almost balled, and looked very uninterested in what she was
saying. After a few minutes of pleading her case, he told her that he would
lower her ticket since he sees that she has a pretty clean driving record and
changed her fine to $150.
I was literally shaking. I know I am guilty of pulling out
in front of the women that hit me. I hope the judge understands that mistakes
happen, and lessons are learned. I will never let someone wave me on into a
lane of traffic again. I will use stop lights for a long while before I want to
go out a side entrance of a large parking lot. AND I will not drive down Woodruff
Road or close to Target during the months of November to January. Just please
don’t make me pay this ticket!!!
After 40 mins of watching other people plead their cases, the
judge called for a recess and said that they would begin the 9:00 am court in
just a few minutes. Those were the longest few minutes of my life. Then all of
a sudden comes this very tall lady, with straight brown hair to her shoulders,
in the front of the court room. She walked behind the desk and asked everyone
to stand. She looked like a really mean principle of a middle school or
something. I knew I was going to be in trouble now L As everyone sat back down,
she read a long list of rules out to the courtroom and I honestly was just
staring at her. I have no idea what she was saying but I was just shaking my
head that I understood. After 20 minutes of listening to a different officer
talk to his previous ticket holders, finally my officer was called up. I was
his third person to be called up to the stand. The lady judge smiled at me as I
awkwardly walked up with my arms full of a pea coat and my purse. She read out my charges and asked if I was
guilty. I quickly said yes mam and she just smiled back at me again. She asked
me for my letter of intent from my insurance company, and I handed it over to
my officer. He looked over it and then shook his head back at the judge. I don’t
even know what kind of face I was making. It was a mixture between horrified
and wanting to just bust out crying I’m sure. She looked back up at me and
pulled her thin black glasses down to her nose. “ Miss Durst, you have a clean
driving record, and I am going to assume this was just a lack of judgment this
day.” I smiled at her and just nodded my
head, “yes mam, I always follow the rules and have never been in any accidents
before.” She smiled back and pushed my file over to the court reporter and said
ok let’s wave this fee. “you will not have any fees to pay Miss Durst. Be
carefull. Case closed.” I’m pretty sure after those words came out of her mouth
I did some kind of happy dance and wanted to go up and hug her but I just kept
weirdly shaking my head and saying thank you so much before the officer walked outside
the court room with me. What a blessing! I was so horrified that I would have to pay this awful ticket, and then pay for my car to get fixed. I turned around to thank to officer and told him that I was getting married in April and thank you again for not making me pay this fine. He just looked at me funny and was like ok well just be careful and have a good day. I think he thought I was pretty cooky, but how is a 23 year old girl who has never been in trouble a day in her life supposed to act in this situation!? Happy & blessed at this moment!
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