Cops, judges, and my day in court

I got pulled over almost two months ago while driving to school. I won't go into the details, but I was cited for careless driving. The officer made some false assumptions which I pointed out to him, but he wasn't in a conversational mood and cited me despite my polite protest. I disagreed vehemently with the officer, and immediately decided I would contest the citation. That same day I wrote a written statement about the incident in order to remember all the pertinent information. I also looked up the careless and reckless driving statutes, and I felt that my conduct had not even approached either misdemeanors. So I indignantly awaited my court date and anticipated being vindicated.

Yesterday I left class and drove to the building housing the Davidson County General Sessions Court. I arrived early and the judge arrived late. Before the judge arrived, the court clerks did their best to get people out of there before the judge even showed up. Everyone who was going to enter a guilty plea was given the change to do so immediately and take traffic school so it wouldn't go on their record. Only three of us were pleading not guilty, so we sat there for quite some time while we waited for the judge. The officer that issued me the citation showed up, so I knew I wouldn't get a freebie on that account. So I settle in for a wait.

I overheard some entertaining conversations in the meantime. The funniest was when a man asked one of the clerks what he should do with a form. The clerk looked at it and asked if he had showed up for that court date. The man said he had not, and the clerk informed him that he had a warrant out for his arrest. The clerk looked around, and the police officers had left the room for a moment, so he told the man that if he went straight over to the warrants division to straighten it out, he'd let him go. I smiled to myself as the guy took off before an officer could come back in the room. I also overheard some clerks talking about how the judge wanted to leave early, and that was why we were all being rammed through the system. One of the clerks asked me again if I wanted to just plead guilty and take traffic school, but I said no. I told myself I would stick it out and plead not guilty because I was in the right. The officer that had issued me the citation clearly recognized me, and he kept eying me with a kind of malicious disdain that I hadn't seen since the grade school playground.

Then the judge entered and it was all over. Of the three people pleading not guilty, he called me up first. He immediately asked me again if I wanted to plead guilty, and told him I wasn't going to because I wasn't guilty. He asked me if I wanted to plead no contest, and I said no. He looked at me for a moment, and I could tell that he hadn't exactly taken a liking to me. The judge then asked if I wanted to disagree with the facts but still take traffic school and keep it off my record. He did so in such a way that gave me the distinct feeling that I wouldn't like his ruling if I continued to plead not guilty.

In that moment I felt like an insect playing chicken with a semi-truck. The court just wanted to get me out of the way, but if I wanted to press the issue, they would take five minutes to squash me like a bug on the windshield. And the process wouldn't hurt them more any more than the annoyance of having a bug splatter on the glass, whereas it could cost me plenty. So I flinched first and took traffic school. The cop smirked at me as I took the forms from the clerk; he knew he had won. Within thirty seconds the other two people who intended to plead not guilty were dispatched in a similar manner and we found ourselves waiting in line for the privilege of paying $80 for traffic school.

To be honest, I didn't really come out a big loser. It would have been worse if I had pled not guilty and lost. And I still get to keep the citation off my record, which is well worth the $80. But I felt quite abused as I stepped out of the courtroom. I plan on making a career in the law, and I feel relatively at home in the justice system. But I still felt helpless and I'm sure the other people felt at the same, if not more so. I got the citation at the whim of the cop, and I was badgered into taking the plea at the whim of the judge. I felt like the deck was stacked against me, and I hadn't been dealt a full set of cards. I was betting against the house and I had a lot more at stake.

And everyone knows that the house always wins.