This morning at 7:30am I

This morning at 7:30am I got up, showered and made my way northeast to Sulphur Springs, Texas. The arraignment for my speeding ticket was at 10am in the morning and it takes about an hour and a half to get there from Dallas. The plan was to just enter a plea of not guilty and to start the trial process rolling forward. I arrived at Judge Glossup’s court about 20 minutes early.

I didn’t realize this but not all arraignments are the same. When I went to Albertville, Alabama to plea they had a courthouse. Everyone sat in the court room on wooden benches waiting for the judge to arrive. Then after he arrived he explained all the rules and what area of the law he would preside over. Then he went through each case and had the person walk up to the bench and plead guilty or not. In this case it was just a small office with two other clerks, like what you’d see if you went to get your driver’s license renewed. It was a bit more dignified than a strip mall though as his office was right off the town square on Main street.

I introduced myself to the clerk and said that I was there for my speeding ticket arraignment. She got my information and looked it up in the computer. She said that will be $105. I told her that I wanted to plead not guilty. Then she got the plea form. In order to plead not guilty I would have to provide a $200 bond. This was a surprise. Since I was going to opt for a jury trial that meant an additional $5 fee. In my only other court case, Albertville, they just scheduled the trial like normal. However, Albertville didn’t offer jury trials and what court system wants to sit through a speeding ticket jury trial. I was ready to accept my fate and go get the $205 they needed to move forward with the trial.

As the clerk was taking my paper work back to the judge to get him to sign it she stopped, turned around and asked me why I wanted a trial. I said I’m not guilty. She gave me this look like “well I know that” and said tell me why you’re not guilty. I said I’m still building my case. Then she disappeared into the next room where the judge sits. When she came back she asked me if I might be interested in deferred adjudication. I asked her to explain the specifics and she said the court will dismiss your case if after 60 days you have no other traffic dispositions filed against you, in exchange you enter a plea of guilty and pay $150.

What is interesting is that at this point I felt like the tone of things changed. Prior to her mentioning of deferred adjudication I had no idea it was an option. Apparently it’s only an option if you know to ask the judge for it, and he decides it’s okay. She was very careful to tell me she was not trying to sway my decision to plead not guilty and that I was making up on own mind on this. Then the judge came up front and we started talking. He said getting a jury together and going to trial is a lot of expense and time. I felt like as soon as I told them I wanted a jury trial they wanted more than anything to avoid that. When the clerk was preparing my deferred adjudication forms she made sure to explain to me that I only have to pay the original speeding ticket if another court disposition comes in. She said that means you can still get another ticket within 60 days you just have to plead not guilty and if the first court date is outside that 60 days then you are fine. I felt like she was telling me, if you take this route you’ll be able to forget about this because getting a ticket, pleading not guilty and getting a new court date will take more than 60 days.

The two clerks and the judge were all very polite and nice. I had hoped for an experience like the one I’d had in Albertville but Texas seems to have a different stance on citations like mine. They just want the money and see you on your way. I feel like Alabama has a more punitive approach. I wanted to get some of the details about the ticket out, I’ll write more about the nifty little details later.