Last week, now in a different pickup, I saw while hitching up a trailer one license plate light was out. I hied me to a car parts store and did the right thing, pronto.
The weirdest thing, though, was getting a ticket for 51 in a 40 a few years ago. I sped up a couple of hundred feet before the "Speed Limit 50" sign. The officer was belligerent but I never said anything about that.
I went to the judge and pled guilty, because that was the truth. She set the fine and I paid it. Then I asked if the city could add a 40 mile per hour sign in the area where I and many others have been ticketed. Maybe not 200 feet before the "50", but there is a stretch of road without speed signs, leaving town going downhill, and I think drivers find it easy to start rolling faster before they (myself included) should. Her response that the State would not allow the city to post speed limit signs on city streets prompted me to ask what law I'd actually broken when I drove too fast.
She referred me to the State, saying I broke a State law, not a City ordinance. The State referred me to the city, saying the speed limit wasn't their law and they couldn't read the court's mind. The judge had said the speed limit was set by the State, the State said the city was crazy, they don't set city speed limits.
I even found a Groesbeck Journal article about the judge's presentation to the local Lion's Club in which she was quoted saying the speeds in the city were set by the State, not the city, along the State highway route. That's never true, except in the case of controlled access State highways through cities.
The State DOT reiterated that the judge was misinformed.
As I followed my journey through the law, I wrote letters to the judge that went unanswered. I didn't call or visit.
We're talking four letters over a span of five months, if memory serves. I bet the judge got more junk mail - by far - from the Texas Municipal League during that same time.
After the fourth letter I got a threat, somewhat ungrammatically phrased, from the City Attorney, writing on behalf of the court, saying they would seek a restraining order against me if I wrote again to the court. For four polite letters in five months, asking what law I broke when I drove too stinking' fast.
So I sent a Public Information Act request to the City Manager, who immediately responded with a copy of the City ordinance and a statement the judge was wrong, that the law I broke was not a State law, but a City ordinance. Then the city found a new City Attorney. I have no idea if the two are connected, although I'm hopeful. :-)
Ever weirder, I contacted the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, to see what they thought of a court that wouldn't tell a convict (me) what law was being applied against them. Their response was that courts in Texas, State Constitution and common sense to the contrary, never have to inform the condemned what law they are being charged with breaking.
I believe, bless their hearts, they are wrong.
Oh, and the police officer, I almost forgot. He came from another department who is rumored to have fired him for selling his department-supplied, City-owned handgun through some Internet venue. The City of Groesbeck, where this happened, no longer has him in their employment, and their police are friendly, committed folks. Always were, save for that bad apple, and I'm certain they wouldn't knowingly tolerate black market arms traffickers on their staff.
These days, the city attorney is new but the judge is still there with her rope. If she fines you, don't ask why, just dig out your checkbook and make tracks for anywhere else as soon as you can.
