Jaywalking Ends the Year
I think I neglected to mention that back in early November, Sue and I met up for First Thursday. Hungry and expecting a long wait but deciding to try anyway, we walked towards Guero’s. The light changed when we were about 20 feet from the crosswalk. Thinking we would not make it to the crosswalk in time and seeing a group of about 10 people crossing right where we were, we followed them across the street.
The next thing we knew, four police officers surrounded us and told us that we neglected to cross the street at a crosswalk and that their captain had pointed us out. An officer took our licenses. In a nice twist, none of the four officers had a citation book on them so we had to follow them back across the street (at the crosswalk, of course). We received citations while being told by the officers that they did not want to write them and that we should contest the citations.
After much debate, I decided to contest it. “Pedestrian crossing midblock” carries with it a $153 fine and is considered a Class C Misdemeanor. I did not want to pay it, but mostly I did not want a misdemeanor on my record.
I went to court yesterday, which in and of itself is a very interesting experience. I sat in the courtroom with all the other Class C misdemeanors. A judge gave us a little speech about taking our charges seriously, giving the example that drug charges can prevent you from getting student loans (I had no idea). Mostly I wanted to know how jaywalking charges could affect my future.
Three prosecutors called the defendants up one by one to offer each person an opportunity to pay our fine and plead guilty, go to trial or receive a deferred disposition. After witnessing several public intoxication pleas, a theft plea and a possession plea, I was convinced that I would have to do community service to dismiss my jaywalking charges. I chose deferred disposition which reduced my fine to $50 and dismisses my charges as long as I do not commit any offenses against the laws of the State of Texas and the City of Austin before February 28, 2009. No community service. Whew. I do Meals on Wheels delivery through work so I was prepared to pull that out as a reason why I did not need to do community service.
The prosecutor was actually pretty amusing, laughing about jaywalking while telling me how serious the problem can be. I do agree in general, but in our case, traffic was stopped and we were 20 feet from a crosswalk full of people! We were not playing Frogger with traffic.
Oh, and Guero’s… We were told there was a 1 1/2 hour wait, but I guess the host saw the dejected looks on our faces and the ticket in my hand. He asked about it and we told him what happened. He said, “No one should get a jaywalking ticket in Austin, Texas. Seat these people right away!” and they did. So if you want to skip the wait at Guero’s, people, get a jaywalking citation right outside their door.
And the photo… Sherman ate my court papers.
Happy New Year!
