I would like to introduce Carla, with an unofficial law degree. [Part II]

See what happens? I say I'm probably not going to be able to blog and all this stuff happens that I just *have* to post about!

Remember this? Yea, all the way from July.

Well, I never was able to do a continuation because nothing was ever known.

There was another court date for the rest of the tickets that ensued. The ones that Jose actually recieved in March, as well as two in April which were also NOT my husband. The April tickets came into play shortly after court, when we called one of the courts to make sure we know when pre-trial was. She asked for which tickets. I ended up going to the court and speaking to her. She informed me that on April 15 at midnight (the same day that Jose had pretrial for the original set of tickets), "Jose" was pulled over driving a white Honda. I asked, "Did he just happen to NOT have a license?" She did a little computer clicking and turned her screen around for me to see.

"I guess not. The officer took a photo."

Guess what? It was NOT my husband. It was my brother-in-law. In the flesh. Grinning like a fool. Oblivious to the fact that he was caught. I asked if I could have a copy of the ticket and the photo. After checking to make sure it was okay, she gave it to me. And she arranged it so that all the tickets could have the same pretrial date so we only had to appear once.

At court that day, it was time for Jose to approach the bench. Upon trying to explain the entire situation, Jose was getting flustered and the judge was clearly confused. I spoke up from my seat and asked if I could speak. Without looking up, the judge told me to be quiet and I could speak when it was my turn. The police officer next to him whispered that I was with Jose and Jose spoke up to say, "That's my wife." The judge's demeanor changed quickly and he welcomed me to join Jose at the bench. Once I got up there, I explained the situation and the various tickets: a driving while suspended ticket in March, a driving while suspended ticket in April, a speeding ticket in March, and a fraudulent plates ticket in April.

Jose pled guilty to speeding in March, which he was guilty of. We opted for the deferral. Both of the driving while suspended cases were dropped, since the removal of the suspension went from the beginning, it wasn't on his driving record, hence, he wasn't "suspended."

The final ticket was a fraudulent plate ticket. Despite the evidence, aka the photo, the judge couldn't dismiss the case because it was pre-trial and not a real trial. He said he would give a 30 day continuance for us to try to get the charges dropped from the state police. We went and spoke to a trooper, who said that there was nothing they could do. He suggested we contact the prosecuter's office. We did. Multiple times and never got a call back. So, about a month later, a letter came stating that Jose must pay about $200 or else his license would be suspended...again. We wrote a letter saying that it wasn't him and that he wasn't going to pay. We requested a trial.

When I dropped off the letter, the woman at the desk recognized me and I asked her what would happen. She said that as long as the letter was in, they wouldn't act upon the suspension. That was September. We called every so often and asked what was going on. For about a month, the judge was on vacation. Then, the letter was sitting on his desk. We never got information about a court date or any further action taken or to take. Until today.

Today, I took out the trash and the the mailman was driving down the street. I grabbed the mail and there was a letter from the court. I said a quick prayer, took a deep breath, and opened it...

CASE DISMISSED!

Praise God! It's a Christmas miracle!!!

Now, if only we can survive this $10K lawsuit from 2001...