My court experience.

Wow, what a long day! I had to get up early of course to take my best friend to her court appearance. Traffic wasn’t that bad since we could use the car pool lane. We got lost though and started freaking out about time. Then when we were finally a few blocks from the courthouse we almost got into an accident since downtown is filled with one way streets and people don’t know where they are driving! How ironic would that have been if we had gotten into an accident and couldn’t make it to court?? Anyways, court took forever! I thought she would go in to see the judge, plead guilty, then just get told her sentence. Nope, not that easy. First we went in to the first court room where we had to wait for her case to be called, while we saw other people and listened to their cases. Mostly traffic violations, some domestic violence, and one pathetic shoplifter. Finally she was called and after she talked to the judge and made her plea, he sent us to a completely different part of the building to see the prosecutor who would suggest her sentence. Finally after waiting in line and getting that done, we had to return to another courtroom where a completely different judge handed down her sentence. She only got one day in jail, a few months of alcohol classes, about 2 grand in fines, and an interlock device in her car to be installed for a year. Once we were done with that, we went down to the cashier and waited in line again.

Then down to the basement to be fingerprinted while I checked out cops coming out of the elevator. (Highlight of my day). Finally, finally, finally we went to our last stop, assessment services where she took a test to see if she is an alcoholic to deem how many hours of class she should receive. WOW! I wonder how many tax dollars were spent today going through this whole process! And what a pain in the ass! Angie treated me to lunch afterwards, and honestly I am pretty sick of talking about this thing. Once again, don’t drink and drive! Angie has to report to jail next week for 24 hours and guess which wonderful friend she’s asked to drop her off and pick her up???