Court
Well, today I went to court. I, of course was nervous because I don't like to be in front of authority like that (even though I was not the defendant). At work they had an employee appreciation breakfast. I was able to go to that, and then about an hour and a half later I left for the West Jordan Courthouse. I left early because I was not going to be late to something like this when I have been subpoenaed by the court. I got there early, so sat in the hall and read some books on my palm pilot.
I went into the courtroom ten minutes before I was supposed to be there. There was no judge, just a couple of people scattered about the room. After 11:00 came, they called the judge and told him "we are ready to play" (I wouldn't have worded it that way, but those whose job this is must feel that way).
I had been pulled out by the prosecutor to make sure what my story on the case was. I told him, and he told me to just be honest. I think I would've been the first one up, but the defendant wasn't there. They gave him time to get there.
The first guy got up and was complaining about the court process saying that he hadn't been arraigned or anything else like a regular court would do. The judge told him that he had gone before the traffic referee and decided he wanted to come to court. He claimed that he wasn't given enough time to prepare a defense because he thought there should be all this other stuff that happens first. The judge asked what he thought the paperwork was sent to his home for as far as the court goes. He kept on whining about this and that. He never got to his case. The prosecutor told the judge he was fine with a continuance because his witness had called in five minutes before sounding very sick and said he was sick. The defendant was still complaining about not having time, and the judge asked him why from October 21st until today wasn't enough time? The judge did dismiss the case though, but only because the witness who had been subpoenaed did not show up.
The next case is the one that took up the time. A woman had turned out of a side street onto a four lane highway. It was rush hour and she was turning left. Two lanes of traffic stopped for her, and let her through. When she was in the center median, a guy in a truck with a trailer tried to avoid hitting her by swerving out of that center lane, but his trailer hit her car in the front end totaling her car. He claimed he was trying to turn into the McDonalds there, but she said he was going too fast for that. The people in a building across the street from where she was also made the same claim. I wonder if he was in the center lane and since he had a trailer he knew he couldn't hit the breaks and speeding up may have been the best choice to trying to get around her (although it didn't work). Anyway, that is speculation. In her case she got out of the traffic ticket but not because the judge didn't see her as guilty. The problem was all in the fact that the police had charged her with the wrong crime. The judge told her that she had to make sure all lanes were clear before doing that and this included the center lane. Since the speed limit was 45 miles per hour on this road, he could've been doing up to 45 miles per hour in that lane. But, she did get it dismissed. This is one of the reasons I go to court most of the time when I get a ticket. I didn't the last time though because I thought it was a fair one and charged correctly (what I don't know hopefully didn't hurt me on this one).
Anyway, my case was next. They called for the defendant who wasn't in the courtroom. That is kind of irritating to me partly because I was subpoenaed and had to be there, and partly because it caused me to stress where I really didn't have too. The prosecutor went ahead with the case and described what happened. The officer who was there was asked if she were put under oath if this is what she would've testified too and she said that it was. The judge then asked about the second part of the ticket which was about not having insurance. I spoke up in the back of the courtroom before I could think about it, and the judge asked who I was. The prosecutor let the judge know who I was, and then I could proceed. I begged the judges pardon and told him that I knew he had insurance because after I had gotten the subpoena, I went through my things and found his insurance agent (who had written me about the accident) and that I had called her to see if he was indeed insured at the time of the accident and I had been told that he was. The judge wondered if he had put in the proper stuff but said that based on the evidence that I had, he would not charge the guy with having no insurance. On the other count of failure to yield when turning left, he was found guilty. I was then told to go to the clerk and file that I was there so I could be paid. I asked the clerk (just a teller in the window) how much I would get, and she thought it was a check for $18.50 for being subpoenaed as a witness. That was unexpected on my part, but it will be nice to receive something for it.
Anyway, that's my day at court. I stressed for no good reason.
The day did continue. I went to Young Men tonight where we were doing more on the Physical Fitness merit badge. Brother Bean was there with the boys and we sent him and Brother Olsen over to the park for the running part. They then came back to do the rest of the exercises. In the meantime, Glen and I worked with one of the boys in trying to help him get up to his second class (he already had the physical fitness merit badge). We gave him a few assignments and joined up with the rest.
When I got home, my son pulled me into the computer room and we had another virus on the computer. This one makes the speakers sound like a radio. I shut the computer down and then ran a full scan on both of the computers. I'm pretty certain we found the offending problems and I took them off the computer. My work computer was completely clean, while my personal machine had 2 viruses and 31 adware things that were screwing it up. I also took care of getting rid of MSN messenger (we had tried before but it was still in memory) and another program called Spiral Frog. Hopefully, that will free up the computer to do what we want it to do. I also got for my son Windows 2000 for a PC in his room that he decided to do away with Ubuntu (a Linux operating system) even if he had to get an old copy of something. Well, old copy is what he got. He is satisfied for now. It will be interesting to see for how long.
I went into the courtroom ten minutes before I was supposed to be there. There was no judge, just a couple of people scattered about the room. After 11:00 came, they called the judge and told him "we are ready to play" (I wouldn't have worded it that way, but those whose job this is must feel that way).
I had been pulled out by the prosecutor to make sure what my story on the case was. I told him, and he told me to just be honest. I think I would've been the first one up, but the defendant wasn't there. They gave him time to get there.
The first guy got up and was complaining about the court process saying that he hadn't been arraigned or anything else like a regular court would do. The judge told him that he had gone before the traffic referee and decided he wanted to come to court. He claimed that he wasn't given enough time to prepare a defense because he thought there should be all this other stuff that happens first. The judge asked what he thought the paperwork was sent to his home for as far as the court goes. He kept on whining about this and that. He never got to his case. The prosecutor told the judge he was fine with a continuance because his witness had called in five minutes before sounding very sick and said he was sick. The defendant was still complaining about not having time, and the judge asked him why from October 21st until today wasn't enough time? The judge did dismiss the case though, but only because the witness who had been subpoenaed did not show up.
The next case is the one that took up the time. A woman had turned out of a side street onto a four lane highway. It was rush hour and she was turning left. Two lanes of traffic stopped for her, and let her through. When she was in the center median, a guy in a truck with a trailer tried to avoid hitting her by swerving out of that center lane, but his trailer hit her car in the front end totaling her car. He claimed he was trying to turn into the McDonalds there, but she said he was going too fast for that. The people in a building across the street from where she was also made the same claim. I wonder if he was in the center lane and since he had a trailer he knew he couldn't hit the breaks and speeding up may have been the best choice to trying to get around her (although it didn't work). Anyway, that is speculation. In her case she got out of the traffic ticket but not because the judge didn't see her as guilty. The problem was all in the fact that the police had charged her with the wrong crime. The judge told her that she had to make sure all lanes were clear before doing that and this included the center lane. Since the speed limit was 45 miles per hour on this road, he could've been doing up to 45 miles per hour in that lane. But, she did get it dismissed. This is one of the reasons I go to court most of the time when I get a ticket. I didn't the last time though because I thought it was a fair one and charged correctly (what I don't know hopefully didn't hurt me on this one).
Anyway, my case was next. They called for the defendant who wasn't in the courtroom. That is kind of irritating to me partly because I was subpoenaed and had to be there, and partly because it caused me to stress where I really didn't have too. The prosecutor went ahead with the case and described what happened. The officer who was there was asked if she were put under oath if this is what she would've testified too and she said that it was. The judge then asked about the second part of the ticket which was about not having insurance. I spoke up in the back of the courtroom before I could think about it, and the judge asked who I was. The prosecutor let the judge know who I was, and then I could proceed. I begged the judges pardon and told him that I knew he had insurance because after I had gotten the subpoena, I went through my things and found his insurance agent (who had written me about the accident) and that I had called her to see if he was indeed insured at the time of the accident and I had been told that he was. The judge wondered if he had put in the proper stuff but said that based on the evidence that I had, he would not charge the guy with having no insurance. On the other count of failure to yield when turning left, he was found guilty. I was then told to go to the clerk and file that I was there so I could be paid. I asked the clerk (just a teller in the window) how much I would get, and she thought it was a check for $18.50 for being subpoenaed as a witness. That was unexpected on my part, but it will be nice to receive something for it.
Anyway, that's my day at court. I stressed for no good reason.
The day did continue. I went to Young Men tonight where we were doing more on the Physical Fitness merit badge. Brother Bean was there with the boys and we sent him and Brother Olsen over to the park for the running part. They then came back to do the rest of the exercises. In the meantime, Glen and I worked with one of the boys in trying to help him get up to his second class (he already had the physical fitness merit badge). We gave him a few assignments and joined up with the rest.
When I got home, my son pulled me into the computer room and we had another virus on the computer. This one makes the speakers sound like a radio. I shut the computer down and then ran a full scan on both of the computers. I'm pretty certain we found the offending problems and I took them off the computer. My work computer was completely clean, while my personal machine had 2 viruses and 31 adware things that were screwing it up. I also took care of getting rid of MSN messenger (we had tried before but it was still in memory) and another program called Spiral Frog. Hopefully, that will free up the computer to do what we want it to do. I also got for my son Windows 2000 for a PC in his room that he decided to do away with Ubuntu (a Linux operating system) even if he had to get an old copy of something. Well, old copy is what he got. He is satisfied for now. It will be interesting to see for how long.
posted by Craig's Blog at 10:59 PM
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