lesson learned - don't let anyone else fix things for you

two years ago i got pulled over by a Cleveland police officer for not having mudflaps on my truck. apparently that is a crime. anyway he writes me a ticket and says if i bring a picture to court with muflaps he will drop the ticket. i explain i can not be in court on the date because i will be out of town and that my cousin is a sergeant with the cleveland police, and ask if i could show him the mudflaps and have him let officer know it's fixed. he says to have my cousin call him and they will take care of it as a professional courtesy(and says if i said something at first he would have let me go).

so i drop by my cousin's house with the ticket so he can have the officer's name and badge #. he says no problem, i'll give him a call and make it go away. a couple days later i followed up and he said i've got a call in to him it's taken care of don't go to court.

fast forward to friday. i get a letter from the BMV stating my license and registration can not be renewed because i have a warrant for my arrest for failure to appear. i go online and see that it never did get taken care of, and that i owe $230 in fines/court costs. so i call to pay and they say i owe nothing yet and must come downtown to schedule a hearing. on top of that the court has my last name spelled wrong and the wrong address listed for me so i never got any correspondence from them.

so now, because i trusted my cousin and took his word that he would make sure the officer that pulled me over know that i had installed my mudflaps, i need to go to court tomorrow and miss work time to schedule another time to go in so they can tell me what i have to pay them to not go to jail.

so basically i'm getting treated like any other deadbeat traffic violator when all i want to do is pay them what i owe. no wonder they have $56 million in uncollected traffic fines and court costs. they won't take your money when you want to give it.

You may want to talk to a lawyer about whether you should show up at the court house with an arrest warrant out. As screwed up as their system appears to be, they may want to toss you in the clink before you have a chance to pay up. Might be wise to exercise a little caution if you don't want to spend some time in lockup.

Regarding your topical statement, "don't let anyone else fix things for you," I wholeheartedly agree. Why should I have somebody else berkeley it up, when I'm perfectly capable of berkeleying it up myself?

All this over some berkeleying mudflaps

Hope you get it all sorted out with minimal hassle.

I'm glad to see the system is working to target hardened criminals like yourself instead of going after all those poor drug dealers and child molesters.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame your cousin. I have to deal with state gov't. all the time and it's always a clusterberkeley.

Regardless, you broke the law (whether you knew it or not.) The appropriate course of action was to either pay the ticket or show up in court, not expect someone else to "fix it" for you.

poopshovel wrote: I wouldn't be so quick to blame your cousin. I have to deal with state gov't. all the time and it's always a clusterberkeley. Regardless, you broke the law (whether you knew it or not.) The appropriate course of action was to either pay the ticket or show up in court, not expect someone else to "fix it" for you.

oh i'm not blaming anyone but me. i unknowingly had an equipment violation and got a ticket for it. when the officer that pulled me over offered to take care of things with my cousin i figured i was ok.

if i ever get pulled over in cleveland again i'm name dropping first barring that i'll pay my crap online since they let you do that now...finally this year they came into the 20th century.

i thought about it today and think i agree about contacting a lawyer before i show up, as the last thing i need is them to laugh that i actually showed up and toss me in jail. anybody that knows me knows i do not get in trouble. ever. no booze, no drugs, no illegal anything, and i've only ever had one speeding ticket in 16 years.

Ugh, that sucks. Any chance the cousin will show up in court, or are you washing your hands of that one? Maybe have him do an affidavit? Seems like you could skip the whole lawyer thing in that case.

Be all apologetic and crap. Maybe offer to pay "court costs?" I dunno. It's worked for me. Obviously I'm not a lawyer (THANK GOD!)

In reply to poopshovel:

not sure. i know he can't go with me tomorrow because he is out of town. i talked to his wife today(also a CPD sergeant). not sure when he will be back and he is bad at returning calls and listening to voicemail.

i think i'm going to wash my hands of that deal, take care of it myself, and keep things good in the family.

according to the court website the case is closed and it has a total due to them from me that is equal to the fine plus court costs, so i am not sure why the rude lady on the phone said i can't just come in and pay and must schedule a court date.

in the end all they want is my $, i'm ready to cut a check and be done, but they make it so hard to hand them that $.

the worst part of the whole deal is my birthday was yesterday, and the registration on my work truck expired. i was going to get it when i got up in the morning, but i am barred from registering or renewing any vehicles until the court clears things up. so the truck i use to make my money has to sit, and i've got nothing else that can carry my tools and materials.

In reply to patgizz:

Impala's have very big trunks

I am confused... trucks need mudflaps?

patgizz wrote: according to the court website the case is closed and it has a total due to them from me that is equal to the fine plus court costs, so i am not sure why the rude lady on the phone said i can't just come in and pay and must schedule a court date.

easy explanation: she breathes solely out of her mouth.
When you said "I apparently have a warrant out for failure to appear, it is showing that I have a fine to pay, how much do I need to pay and when can I pay it?"
she heard "hello. I got ticket for speeding. I just got it yesterday. I don't want to go to court, but it says I have to! that's not fair! Can I come down and pay you something so I don't have to?"

It takes all kinds of people who don't listen to make the world go round=]

I imagine you can send somebody else in to pay it and see if any nice officers appear to ask them questions?

poopshovel wrote: Regardless, you broke the law (whether you knew it or not.) The appropriate course of action was to either pay the ticket or show up in court, not expect someone else to "fix it" for you.

I'm glad you're around to be the voice of reason when i can't be. It's a thankless task

You can't rat out the cop and your cousin. If they can't fix it, you have to pay the fine whatever it is, and call it a day.

In reply to patgizz:

Lesson learned should be "dont assume". Even as a lawyer, I have trusted other lawyers and even judges to follow thru with various acts and fixes. I have learned to follow up and make sure it happens. Just like you are seeing, the long term effects can be tremendous.

i just went through the whole list of things on the court site that happened.

7-14-10 they mailed me a letter. had i received that i would have fixed things immediately. however, because they have my last name and address totally wrong.... i got no such letter. why they waited 2 years to follow up is beyond me.

i printed out directly from their website that, along with the incorrect street name and last name, and the list of costs i owe and will go downtown tomorrow and hope to just be able to pay up and leave. i don't trust the government but i don't trust lawyers either so i may as well try to make things right myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDLFKCEzcnc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

i ended up talking to a lawyer anyway, because she is one of my mom's friends.

she said that they will say come in to reschedule, but all they will do when i get there is try to get me to pay up. she has never heard of them rescheduling a date when the fines are already in the system, and that me showing up ready to pay is a good thing and should go fine. she said if they give me any crap call her personal cel and she will take care of me, but she doubts there will be any issues.

looking forward to hopefully going in and paying what i owe and being done so i can go renew my truck plate so i can pull my trailer to work tuesday. i will be very sad if i have to use my impala to pull a trailer full of windows and tools to work.

datsun1500 - i wish it was that easy to get thrown out on a technicality. but i don't have a problem paying the fine. i screwed up and have no issue owning up to it.

Is there a reward for turning you in?

Gimp wrote: Is there a reward for turning you in?

you gotta be colin's dad while i'm in the joint

patgizz wrote:

Gimp wrote: Is there a reward for turning you in?

you gotta be colin's dad while i'm in the joint

Gladly.

Gimp wrote:

patgizz wrote:

Gimp wrote: Is there a reward for turning you in?

you gotta be colin's dad while i'm in the joint

Gladly.

you can't have sex with carli though.

Lesson learned? stay out of ohio. All this bleeding misery over mud flaps? really?

I still want to know why you need mudflaps on a truck... unless this is not a pickup?

poopshovel wrote: I wouldn't be so quick to blame your cousin. I have to deal with state gov't. all the time and it's always a clusterberkeley.

NY State could screw up anything. When I applied with the bus company I needed my license and SS card. I was born Wallace Miller III, that is how it appeared on my SS card but at some point DMV dropped the III. They had to match so I ran across the street to the DMV. I was told it could not be fixed and to get SS to change my card. Luckily they were able to get me a new card in just a few minutes..

Big bottom, big bottom
Talk about mud flaps, my girl's got 'em
Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?

Sorry for the random Spinal Tap reference, but I think of this song every time I hear the word mudflaps.