My husband had a real terrible speeding incident today also. He was coming home from work this afternoon and got pulled over for speeding. The police officer called in his license number and an old bench warrant from 1989 showed up on his record. (In 1989 he had his license suspended for unpaid parking tickets but later that year we had gone to court and paid what we thought were all of his fines and had his license reinstated.) We had no idea about this bench warrant for failure to show up in court and had no idea he had ever had a court date that he had missed. Now I would have thought this would have come to light some time in the last 14 years with him renewing his license. He also just went through a criminal background check for a federal government job at the airport by the FBI!
Anyway the police officer that pulled him over apologized saying he had just randomly picked my husband's car out of 5 or 6 that were speeding. They did him a huge favor and brought him right to district court. Otherwise he would have been brought to the state police barracks and been formally arrested and sent to the state prison to await arraignment. This happened in the afternoon so he probably would have spent the night in prison!
Instead he was put in a cell in district court to wait for sentencing. The stories he can tell about the company he spent the day with I won't bore you all with. Now mind you he is on his way home from work at the airport in his full security uniform and has just finished working the 3 am to 12 pm shift. He was on his way to pick up the kids from the babysitter's and get my daughter off of the school bus. I had no idea what had happened. I called the babysitter an hour after the kids are usually picked up and they were still there. I called everywhere trying to figure out what had happened to him and had to have my mother leave work early to go pick my daughter up from school. I only found out what had happened because he used his one phone call and left a message at home.
By the time I got to district court he had been released with a $479 fine, not for the speeding ticket but the old bench warrant. Now we have a lot a researching to do to see if he really does owe this amount or if this is a mistake. I can't see how they could have reinstated his license if this was still unresolved at the time. We were just thinking of planning a trip to Disneyland in the spring with all of the great airfares out there. If we do have to pay this fine that will probably be the end of that idea.
Sorry so long. I guess the moral of the story is make sure you clear up all of those old parking tickets, you don't know when they will come back to haunt you.
Anyway the police officer that pulled him over apologized saying he had just randomly picked my husband's car out of 5 or 6 that were speeding. They did him a huge favor and brought him right to district court. Otherwise he would have been brought to the state police barracks and been formally arrested and sent to the state prison to await arraignment. This happened in the afternoon so he probably would have spent the night in prison!
Instead he was put in a cell in district court to wait for sentencing. The stories he can tell about the company he spent the day with I won't bore you all with. Now mind you he is on his way home from work at the airport in his full security uniform and has just finished working the 3 am to 12 pm shift. He was on his way to pick up the kids from the babysitter's and get my daughter off of the school bus. I had no idea what had happened. I called the babysitter an hour after the kids are usually picked up and they were still there. I called everywhere trying to figure out what had happened to him and had to have my mother leave work early to go pick my daughter up from school. I only found out what had happened because he used his one phone call and left a message at home.
By the time I got to district court he had been released with a $479 fine, not for the speeding ticket but the old bench warrant. Now we have a lot a researching to do to see if he really does owe this amount or if this is a mistake. I can't see how they could have reinstated his license if this was still unresolved at the time. We were just thinking of planning a trip to Disneyland in the spring with all of the great airfares out there. If we do have to pay this fine that will probably be the end of that idea.
Sorry so long. I guess the moral of the story is make sure you clear up all of those old parking tickets, you don't know when they will come back to haunt you.
And I thought I had a bad day!
