I fought the law....and I WON!!

Oh my gosh, this is the silliest thing but man I had to get this out there. I just keep hearing that old Bobby Fuller song in my head "I Fought the Law and the Law Won" but in my version I won! :-)

Here's a little backstory. I'm not sure if it's the same in every state but in Indiana we have a seatbelt law. Every person in the car (regardless of age) is required to wear a seatbelt or if caught will receive a fine of $25.00. They randomly have seatbelt checkpoints that try to catch people in the act of not wearing their seatbelts. You will soon see in this entry that I am very much opposed to this law. I think it is perfectly appropriate to require anyone under the age of 18 to have to wear their seatbelt but absolutely ridiculous to fine otherwise law abiding, legal adults for only putting themselves in harm's way.

Well, a little over a month ago I was innocently on my way home :-) and came upon one of these assinine seatbelt checkpoints. Of course I was wearing my seatbelt because I always choose to so I was not worried about going through the intersection. I stopped and looked around very carefully because there were police officers standing in the middle of the street at all four corners and I did not want to come close to putting one in danger. I pulled through the intersection and the office who had his back to me yelled for me to stop. He them proceeded to tell me that I had rolled through the intersection and to pull around to be issued my citation. Of course I was in shock because I did no such thing and didn't have a clue what to say to defend myself. A woman (not a sheriff's deputy) gave me my ticket, showed me what to do to pay it, where to go if I wanted to dispute it, and how much it would be. I thought my head would explode when I was told it would be a $91.50 fine!! Not only that but it would be 4 points on my license and of course that would mean my insurance would go up.

I am not one to back down when I feel an injustice has been done so I knew I would fight it. It was a huge joke around my church given my big mouth that I would be found in contempt of court and would end up in jail for a $91.50 fine. July 1st rolled around and I went to the courthouse. This particular appointment was a date to find out my options. I could pay the fine and have the points, or I could enter a deferral program (trust me, this would be way to long to discuss) and pay $150.00 to get the points taken off, or I could fight it. Considering I felt that I just couldn't admit guilt for something I did not do I had to fight it. I got an actual court date for July 30th and was told that there was little chance I would win. Not only that but I was told that along with my $91.50 fine I would also be required to pay $87.00 in court costs if I lost. I felt like it was a scam to push the deferral program and make me pay when I didn't do anything at all to deserve to pay. I am an honest person and if I was caught speeding or doing something I was guilty of I would have paid but I couldn't admit to this.

Fast forward to today. I called the clerk's office because I noticed that the address on my subpoena was old and I wanted them to be able to get ahold of me if they tried to contact me by mail. I told the lady my name and why I was calling and her response was that my case was dismissed on 7/6/04 and that I would not need to come to court afterall!! I actually won (well didn't lose) and didn't even have to go to court to do it! I prayed and the Lord took care of it with me doing nothing more than standing up for what's right. I fought the law and I won!