I Fought the Law, And I WON!

A few months ago I had to go into Austin during a weekday, which NEVER happens. It was an emergency I needed to tend to, and it turned into an unfortunate trip. I ended up getting a ticket as I entered the freeway. Ugh...

I was so annoyed. I've been ticketed just three times in my driving career, all for minor speeding tickets. The last of those occurred when I was pregnant with Cooper. In fact, I was driving down a rural highway and racing to get to a potty break 95 mph over the speed limit), one of the pitfalls of being pregnant and commuting an hour to/from work. Ha! Anyways, I'm not an aggressive driver, but on this day in Austin, I was mistaken for one. I was ticketed for following too closely, when neither my passenger (my sister) nor I saw a vehicle in front of me. Yeah, when I entered the freeway, I was too close to a vehicle in the freeway merging process, which is why I quickly changed lanes into an open lane with less traffic. Then, I got pulled over. Grr....

Needless to say, I disagreed with the ticket. And, I don't easily accept things that I don't agree with. Yeah, I'm an arguer. I like confrontation. I like to argue. Blame my parents for letting me compete in debate through high school. ha ha!

I did question my resolve each time the prosecutor's office offered me a reduced fine and a chance to keep the ticket off my record, but I continued through the process of challenging my ticket over the past three months. Even this morning, when I appeared for my jury trial, I was offered a chance to plead out with an even lower fine and be done with the situation. I assured the prosecutor the issue wasn't about money for me, but rather that I wasn't guilty and I still wanted a jury trial. (I was going to feel very stupid if I lost the case and it did become about money when I had to pay higher insurance premiums.)

After fours hours in court, with one of those being an hour of jury deliberations, I was very relieved to win my first (and hopefully last) court case. It was an interesting morning in court as I struggled to recall all my moot court experience in college. I'd like to think my poly sci prof would be proud of me, but most of all, I'm just glad to be rid of that stinkin' ticket!