Here Comes The Judge........and the Jury

I had to go to court yesterday for two minor traffic violations (nothing that could have hurt anyone - no speeding, etc.) The judge came in on time after I had counted 18 rows with 11 seats each plus people standing. He began speaking and assuring us that the worst any of us would suffer would be one year in jail and a $1000 fine. THAT was reassuring. At first his humor was a bit reassuring. As the afternoon wore on, his humor masked a huge ego along with his didactic manner. It was dismaying to realize that the justice system in this city was so inefficient. It appeared un,ess you wanted to plead guilty and immediately pay your fine (which you could have done without showing up for the cattle call) that you had to fill out a very confusing set of papers. At several points in my career, I worked for law firms. Even with my experience, it was a bewildering process. Since I was pleading no contest, I had to fill out a paper. Once handed in (questionable as to whom), we waited to be called into a separate room with three solicitors. One solicitor looked especially nice -- I hoped to get him. One was designated for the latino "defendants" (what we were all called). The last one looked like a typical hard DA. I watched as defendant after defendant approached the individual solicitors. Most were pled down, points reduced or eliminated. The latinos' solicitor seemed the toughest.

Finally, I was called up to the "hard" DA's table. My solicitor took one look at me, asked a few questions, and to my ultimate happiness, he dismissed my charges completely. That wasn't the end of it. I had to go out and wait in the courtroom for the judge to agree to the solicitors' negotiations. After I went back into the courtroom, the jovial judge suddenly began to be not so jovial. He began overturning pleas, lecturing those who had already pled guilty. Amazingly, in the midst of all this, a woman accused of battery, followed by a crack then a cocaine addict were brought in and interrupted the process. The judge was "easier" on these defendants than those sitting in the courtroom. I waited through 192 cases to be called - among the last eight - and found that he had already signed off on my case but no one had called my name. I had sat for four hours virtually for nothing. Last night, I dreamed of people passing unloading school buses, speeding at 90+ miles an hour, driving with no license, no insurance, it was a troubled sleep.

I'm still trying to make sense of yesterday. Did I witness justice? Or something else?