The Trial (or "Jailbird Part III--the final chapter")

Yesterday was Josh's pre-trial and trial. If you don't know what I'm talking about, see this and this. We arrived to the county building pretty early and were waiting in the lobby outside of the courtroom. As usual, the people waiting with us--at least some of them--seemed completely crazy. And you know what I've noticed about many criminals throughout this experience? They can't speak quietly. Honestly, there was this one woman who was "talking" to what I assumed was her boyfriend as if he were on the other side of an industrial wheat grinder. Josh kept looking up, thinking that she was addressing him, on the other side of the room, rather than the man less than two inches away from her. It seems like if you often do illegal things (which it seemed she had), the least you could do is learn to whisper. But I guess it's true that most criminals are dumb and get caught. Thank goodness. The other interesting thing about sitting in that lobby is observing people's clothing. There are always a couple of guys wearing borrowed suits with mismatched shoes and just a little too much jewelry and gel in their hair to pull off the respectable look they're going for. And then I start wondering to what extent a person is judged by his or her appearance in such a setting. I can see it making a difference.

For instance, Josh and I were the first people to meet with the prosecuting attorney for a pre-trial. We met privately in his office, and I could sense (though I may be projecting) a bit of relief when he saw us--not that we're a very conventional looking couple, but compared to the alternatives waiting outside of his office, we were the closest he was going to get. And the fact that we could put two reasonably coherent sentences together audibly but without yelling also helped. What really did the trick though was Josh finally getting a chance to explain the whole story and present a letter from the movie production company apologizing and taking responsibility for the incident. The attorney was very nice and "didn't" give us legal advice, but told us what he would do in our situation, which was accept the failure to register charge (which is only a class C misdemeanor, not a moving violation, and therefore of the same rank as a parking ticket) and get the production company to pay for the ticket and the Failure to Appear fine (a total of about $300). He dropped the Failure to Secure Load charge, though he didn't know what a drive line was. When he found out it was part of the engine though, he didn't need much convincing that the charge was ridiculous.

So Josh went back a couple hours later for his trial, pleaded "no contest" to the registration charge (meaning he doesn't accept guilt for the charge, though the consequences are the same as pleading guilty) and the rest of the bail money was refunded to us. And the production company has agreed to pay the $300 the court kept.

And then we lived happily ever after.

The End.