A Day In Court

"All rise. The honorable judge Evans presiding. Court is now in session."

A half an hour ago, the waiting area was full of "traffic offenders" anxious to defend themselves, I was one of them; ready to plead guilty but with reason. My offense? Violating Vehicle Code, Section 22350 - or simply speeding. I had my supporting documents and a persuasive/argumentative speech prepared; but, I was still real nervous about going into court.

There are 3 ways a traffic ticket can be dismissed:

1. The ticketing officer requests for the court to dismiss the case.
2. The ticketing officer does not show up to court to plead his/her case.
3. A trial takes place and the judge rules in the defendant's favor.
   

Time to go in...

The police officers were seated separately from the defendants. The room grew quiet as the clerks prepared for trial.
The judge began with roll call - calling out each case with the defendant's name and then the officer's. In the first two cases, the officers requested for dismissals and the defendants were free to leave. In the following three cases, the parties were to stay and defend their cases at trial after roll call.

Still waiting for my name to be called. Five more cases called - all dismissed. The room was becoming empty. I was growing nervous. There were more officers in the room than there were defendants, one of those officers were bound to be the one that issued me a ticket. Guess it was going to have to come down to a trial after all. I started to shrink into my seat. I was trying to go through my argument in my head, when finally...

Judge: Cressida Lloren Ong
Me: Present
Judge: Officer Harken. Officer Harken? Regarding case #: FL808401, the people are unable to continue at this time. This case is dismissed. Ma'am, you are free to go.

WOO HOO!!!! What a relief! Winning by default? Feels just as good to me!

It was not as bad as I had imagined. It was still pretty nerve racking, oh yeah. But, the officers were casual about the situation; even the judge had a sense of humor. Although it was not as bad as I thought, it's still not an experience I want to relive.