Yesterday, at the beginning of Judge John Connor's Hudson City Court session, Connor began by saying that there were " a lot of traffic tickets to get to today." He then told everyone present what their 3 choices were in handling their tickets since "the DA's office no longer offers reduced charges for tickets in court." As Connor often repeats, the choices are these: Either plead guilty today and pay the fine; plead not guilty and schedule a trial date; or, have today's court date adjourned for two months so that you have time to appeal the ticket to the County DA's office via their online ticket reduction request form.
The first of the session's fourteen defendants to approach the bench was there for an unregistered vehicle ticket. He was wearing shorts. Judge Connor told the man, "There are no shorts allowed in court. Please don't wear shorts if you are in court again." The defendant nodded his head, then told the judge that he wanted to adjourn his case so that he could try to get a reduced charge from the DA's office. Connor adjourned the case to September 20th. If the defendant gets a reduced charge from the County DA and the ticket is paid by September 20th, he doesn't have to return to court. If the ticket is not paid by that date, he is to return to court to pay or get another adjournment.
The second defendant was in court for his second appearance regarding a Speed In Zone ticket which he had successfully gotten reduced online by the DA's Office to a Parking On Pavement charge, also known as 1201A. Since he was still unable to pay the reduced charge, the judge adjourned the case once again, this time until September 5th, to give him time to pay. The judge stated that the fine and surcharge total for the reduced charge came to $175 ($150 plus $25). Off the defendant went.
The third defendant, responding to a suspended vehicle registration charge, was quickly admonished by the judge for wearing shorts to court. The defendant also chose to adjourn his case for a try at a plea deal from the County DA.
The fourth defendant was responding to a seat belt violation ticket. Since he spoke no English, the judge told him to "return to court tomorrow when there will be a Spanish-speaking interpreter present." Off the defendant went. He was not wearing shorts.
The tenth defendant got the "no shorts in court" admonishment from Connor. "Okay," the defendant responded. Connor responded with: "That's okay, not a problem." The defendant chose to adjourn his case to try for a reduced charge on his seat belt violation ticket.
The eleventh and twelfth defendants were also admonished about wearing shorts and both got their cases adjourned, one for a failure to stop at a stop sign and the other for a seat belt violation.
The last two defendants, both wearing pants, also got their cases adjourned for a reduced charge. They, along with the others, will have to go to DMV to pay $10 for a paper copy of their driving abstract, which will need to be uploaded to the DA's "traffic plea agreement" online form. They will also have to upload a copy of their traffic ticket to the form, fill out the rest of the form, hit the submit button and then wait to hear back from the DA's office in the form of an email. The process is not easy, it is time consuming, it is all done digitally on a phone or computer, and it is not free. This new, convoluted system was instituted in December of last year. Unsurprisingly, the DA's office will not accept any phone calls about the online form if you are having trouble with it.
This morning in City Judge Cheryl Roberts' court, there were only 3 defendants responding to traffic violation tickets. One of them was the Spanish-speaking fella from the previous day. The interpreter was present in court via a large computer screen, and within 6 minutes the DA's Office representative in the court, Carl Whitbeck, the judge, the public defender and the interpreter all helped the defendant agree to a REDUCED CHARGE/PLEA DEAL right then and there. What do you suppose the reduced charge was that he agreed to? You guessed it -- Parking on Pavement, or 1201A. But Judge Roberts interprets 1201A differently than Judge Connor and the DA's Office do. She concluded: "The fine is $50 and the surcharge is $25, for a total of $75. Can you pay that today?" Speaking in Spanish, the defendant said something and nodded his head. The interpreter told the judge that the defendant could pay today, and off the non-English speaking fella went to pay the court clerk outside the courtroom door.
He didn't have to sign anything or fill out any paperwork. No adjournment, no DMV abstract, no downloading, no online forms, no waiting for weeks to hear back from the DA, no hoops to jump through, and no bullshit. His charge was reduced and taken care of quickly in court (just like it was for every defendant prior to 7 months ago) due to the simple fact that this defendant could not speak or read the English language.
Apparently, in Hudson City Court there exists special treatment for those fortunate enough to not be able to speak or understand the English language. The court will do its best to find and pay for an interpreter, and make sure that certain defendants in need of an interpreter are able to avoid the rules and annoyances that everyone else who is unfortunate enough to speak English has to deal with. This would include a special allowance to pay a simple traffic ticket at a much higher reduction than everyone else. It makes me proud to be an English-speaking American.
A half hour later, a defendant was called in front of the judge for an issue not related to a traffic violation. He was a big guy, wearing big baggy blue shorts, just as plain as day. Do you think Judge Roberts had a problem with this fella wearing shorts in the Hudson City Court? Of course not! She didn't say a thing about his shorts. She never does.
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