I Think I Witnessed An Incident Of Court Rage, Just As I Predicted!

On Tuesday, Judge Connor's scheduled 9:00 am court session began at 9:20 to a relatively small crowd of defendants, maybe 10 in total.

The first four defendants had been ticketed for speeding in the 20-mph zone on Harry Howard Avenue.  Judge Connor adjourned each of their cases for a month after offering them the spiel that is so common in city court now: "The DA's office no longer offers plea deals in court, you have to go on their website and contact them by email and try to get a plea deal.  You have 3 options:  You can plead guilty now and get points on your license; you can plead not guilty and ask for a trial; or, you can try to get a plea deal from the DA's office, as I mentioned.  What would you like to do?"  All 3 opted to contact the DA's office for a plea deal, were handed an instruction sheet to do so, given an adjourned court date for next month, and sent off.  

The 5th defendant, a Ms. Roberts, approached the bench and sat down in the chair.   She had also been ticketed for speeding on Harry Howard Avenue (by the same State Trooper as the other 4, it turns out).  The judge asked her if she had heard him explain to the others what her options were to take care of her speeding ticket.  Ms. Roberts spoke loudly, and she was angry, saying, "I thought that's what I was here for today!  I don't understand."   The judge reiterated that since the DA's office no longer accepts plea deals in court, it could not be taken care of now unless she pled guilty.  Roberts responded:  "I don't even know what a plea deal is, judge.  This is such a waste of resources.  Why is this so confusing for a simple traffic ticket?"  There was the court rage that I had eluded to and invented in my April 20th article, titled Is There Such A Term as "Court Rage"?.  Finally, someone had given the Hudson City Court some resistance to its new, unhelpful system.

The Assistant DA Carl Whitbeck, seeming bothered at the rage and pushback, spoke up, saying "She was going 42 in a 20 mph zone, she can just plead guilty if she wants."  

The Public Defender Michael Howard talked to Ms. Roberts to try to calm her down so that she wouldn't get too irate and spoil her chances of a reduced charge. 

When things calmed down, Ms. Roberts agreed to contact the DA's Office for a reduced charge to her ticket and she was given a new court date of June 21st.  She left the courtroom, still unsatisfied.

I caught up with Ms. Roberts outside the court and she told me that she had been issued her speeding ticket on April 24th.  In other words, a month after she received that speeding ticket, she showed up to court on a Tuesday morning, only to be handed a piece of paper and told to go home and contact the DA's Office by email to possibly get a plea deal/reduced charge on that ticket.

Then she had this to say:  "You wonder why no one trusts the courts."