I am now a convicted criminal
After conferring with an attorney, and weighing my costs/benefits in the situation, I plead guilty to my retarded little traffic misdemeanor.
It came down to this: paying an attorney to fight it would have cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $2500 - $4000. Plus, the attorneys I spoke with weren't optimistic that I would win anyway. Taking the deal that they offered me, I paid a flat $500 fine, and that is all.
I got off pretty good, considering the sentencing options were ANY OR ALL of the following:
$2000 fine
Four months in jail
Suspended license
1 year probation
They also explained to me that with the path I chose I can expunge it from my record. After one year of no offences I can come back, and they will wipe my record clean. So this way I will only pay one year of higher car insurance too.
Not a bad deal, but I'm still a little grouchy that I had to deal with any of this garbage. I think a suitable punishment would have been a stern lecture, and maybe a hefty civil ticket. At least a civil ticket is payable by mail, and would not have started a criminal record for me.
You win some, you lose some. But, it is what it is. I'm not going to let it ruin my day.
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