My day in court

Well, I took a chance playing in the limit donkfest over at the Rio yesterday. Check out my experiences over at pokerworks.com.


My official writeup for Tao Beach has been published over at LasVegasVegas.com. They always do a nice job of cleaning up my pictures. I was lucky to get pictures at all because cameras are not permitted, obviously because of the nudity issue. I had to sneak the camera in and snap a couple of pictures quickly when nobody was looking.

So, the moment you were all waiting for - my day at court. Finally I have some resolution.

This is what happened. I got there early, so I headed upstairs to my attorney's office and we discussed a few things. He was concerned because supposedly all of the witness were ready and waiting. My chances of having the case dismissed were pretty non existent and he wasn't even hopeful that I'd have it knocked down to a reckless driving. My stomach got tied in more knots when I heard this.

So, we headed over to the courthouse and I got comfortale on the wooden bench in courtroom 8D. I placed the sunglasses I was wearing on top of my head. Not two minutes later the bailiff came over to me and told me I had to put the sunglasses away. UM - WHY?? Why the hell can't I wear sunglasses on my head in a court room? The lady next to me was a landlord there for eviction proceedings, so she spends a lot of time at the court house. She told me that some sunglasses are actually cameras, so that's why they wanted me to put them away. Heaven forbid I take a picture of the cranky nasty bailiff. I'm sure the paparazzi would pay me loads of money for that!

Anyway, they way they handle the DUI proceedings is similar to a cattle call. They call us up one by one and if you made a deal before hand, the judge reads out the terms of your deal. She reads over a bunch of stuff about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd offense penalties, and then she asks you if you understand. Everyone goes around the room and says "yes" and they they say if they are pleading "guilty" to these charges and then they agree to do whatever was agreed upon. Pretty boring stuff.

Everyone in the court room got the DUI conviction and whatever other charges on the sheet were dismissed. In my case, I didn't show proof of insurance when I was pulled over because I was too fucked up to find it. So, that charge was dropped because I had proof. In addition, because there was an issued with one of the witnesses, I think it was the chemist that couldn't be there, I was given a reckless instead of the DUI. I'm the only one that was given the reckless. Everyone else got the full DUI.

All of this is dependent on a few things...

1. I have to pay a $580 fine
2. I have to pay $200 to take alcohol classes, luckily you can do them online
3. I have to go to a victim impact panel at a library for an hour and a half and pay $50 for that. I think it's basically like a group of people who have lost loved ones due to drinking and driving, so it'll be a very uncomfortable and eye opening experiencs. I'm sure I'll leave the place guilt ridden.
4. AND - since I was WAY over the legal limit, my BAC was .20, I have to have a mandatory evaluation by the state to determine if I need further counseling, rehab or need to have a device on my steering wheel (at my own cost) that I have to blow into to start the car.

So, all in all, if I accomplish all of these things in the next 3 months, I go back to court in September and the DUI is dropped down to a reckless. I'm happy with that.

I have spent so much money and time on this thing, and this was my first offense. I can't imagine having to go through this again. The fines and penalties just get higher and higher. I for one have definitely learned a hard lesson.

So, that was my day in court.