A Short Story Made Long

Update on Sean:

The state's attorney dropped the misdemeanor charge of reckless driving to speeding. I paid a hundred dollar fine. Done.

Okay. You don't think it's going to be that quick do you? I'm not even close to finished.

Court starts at 10 am. But the ticket says be there at 9 am. Everybody and their hosed up brother has to be there at nine. So try and find a parking spot. Yeah, go ahead and try.

Then wait in line with all these, um, people. You can only get in the door one at a time, when security waves you next. Oy. I felt like I deserved to get on a plane after going through that.

Right-O. Somehow Sean knew to go to the Court Clerk's office first. Maybe he remembered from last time? She instructed us to go sign in at room 123, the State's Attorny's office. Because he is a minor, or in legal terminology, a youthful offender, he can't have his name on the list posted in the foyer for the world to see. So we go sign in, and wait for his name to be called out loud.

Its a mob scene in the foyer area where people are waiting to be called in by someone, or for court to open, or whatever they are waiting for. And VERY interesting. I leaned up against the wall and opened 'Mary Todd Lincoln', and while I was pretending to read, I was really doing another anthropological study. (symantics is everything, I was really gawking). I was speculating on why people were there, based on their clothing, their posture, their age and gender. And I caught people looking at me. They didn't think I did anything to be there, I HOPE?? I lifted "Mary Todd Lincoln" higher. NOBODY who reads "Mary Todd Lincoln" is here because they did something wrong. Please.

We waited a long time. Finally the State's Attorney called us. In his office he asked, "So what do you want to do with this case?"

????

I didn't realize we had choices. "Well, dismiss it, of course", I replied. Hehehe. Not really.

I asked him what our options were. He said we could take it to trial. Or he could drop it from reckless driving to speeding. And there was some other stuff he said too, like conditional things or such, because Sean is a youthful offender. I don't know. I really didn't understand what he was talking about. You know how you do something every day for years and don't realize that other people don't know what you know? I'm 'other people' in that scenario.

In any event, I opted for dropping the charge to speeding and paying a hundred dollar fine. Which took a hefty minute to do when we went BACK to the Court Clerk's office to take care of that. Apparently the smarty pants State's Attorney forgot to write the amount of the fine on Sean's chart. I told her it was five dollars, "no, really", but she just laughed and sent someone to ask the schmuck.

As we were leaving, Sean high fived someone he knew, and from across the room a girl's voice rang out, "bye Sean!".

************************************************

And that's the story of court on Tuesday. It was a long morning. I've been wondering if I should've opted for trial. Accepting the reduction to speeding was like a guilty plea, and I really doubt Sean's guilt in this. There are a lot of questionable things. But based on Sean's credibility, and the chance that he could be found guilty of reckless driving, I made a quick decision. But I'm going to be paying attention to the state police around here.

On the way home I passed a state police officer parked at the infamous Chucky's Mobile. We were in the truck. Wouldn't you know it, that officer pulled out and followed me for about 10 miles, right on my tail. Sean was all panicky - "Mom, pull off here, pull into Sunny's...".

I said, "Son? I am not doing anything that warrants a stop. Is there something I should know?"

"No, mom, I know. But he knows this truck and he thinks its me driving."

A couple things come to mind.

One: Is my son hiding something?
or
Two: Is my son afraid of the cops because they harrass him?

Sean didn't tell me about the speeding ticket. But he did tell me that he got stopped a while ago because the police officer misread his plates. The officer said (according to Sean), he thought the "M" was an "N", because there was dirt on the plate, and when he pulled up the tag number, it didn't match the vehicle and that was why he was pulling Sean over. Meanwhile, Sean said he had his flashlight beam all over the cab of the truck and was visibly trying to sniff while Sean talked. Sean said he checked when he got home and there was no dirt on the plate. This happened the day after he was pulled over for the alleged 90 (++) speeding ticket.

Did I tell you that was how it was written on the ticket? 90++. How do you come to that conclusion if he was CLOCKED? Wouldn't it be like 92 or 89? And did I tell you that the police officer threatened Sean and told him that if he didn't call him back with his social security number (Sean didn't have his lisence on him), that he would come to Sean's house and crack him over the head with his flashlight?? And who was the woman who was in the car with this police officer? It was 10 at night, Sean said he had no lights on, so this cop was sitting in the dark with this woman, hiding in the woods. Then the woman comes out and walks with the cop to Sean's window? What is THAT about???

Of course, this is all from Sean's mouth. But it's been pretty consistant. He's told the stories number of times now, and they don't differ. He's a liar, but not that good.

I think Sean made himself a target somehow. Take a nice young man who is trying to grow up and who happens to be very selective about recognizing authority, and put him in a very small town with bored, roosterish police officers, and I think we may find a bit of trouble. Its a little scary. Not something I ever anticipated. We moved here to get him away from the urban influence. I'm not so sure we landed in a better spot for Sean's benefit. I'm getting wiffs of Deliverance around here....

Peace