Legal Offense Disguised as Legal Defense

There are Times to Offend and Times to Defend.

Unfortunately, this is a True Story.  The names and characters have been changed to protect the Innocent, and the Guilty…..or not so Guilty.

“Hey, Jethro !  How’s the Family doin’ ?”

“Whew-ee !  Have we just been on one hard roller coaster ride, Sam,”  Jethro declared as he took off his old Stetson, and wiped the sweat out of the inside of the hat with his handkerchief.  “Sure is hot today.”

“Yep, yep.  It sure is,”  Sam returned shaking his head in agreement.  “But it usually is in this neck of the woods, Jethro.”  Sam paused before saying, “Well, are you gonna’ tell me about what’s goin’ on out at your place or are you gonna’ make me pull it out of you like a sore tooth ?”

“Well, it’s a complicated state of affairs, Sam.  In fact, if I didn’t know that all of the facts were true for myself, because I was aware of them all along the way, I’d have trouble believing’ it, myself,”  Jethro said as he fitted his Stetson back on top of his damp and wavy, salt-’n’pepper hair.

“Now, that you’ve got me hooked, Pard.  Go ahead and reel me the rest of the way in.  I’m all ears,”  Sam grinned emitting a deep chuckle.  “Your brood is always in the thick of things, it seems.”

“You got that right,”  Jethro said good humouredly.

“Does it involve one of your kiddos ?”  Sam probed.

“She may as well be.  It‘s my niece, Cheyenne.  She’s had a little run in with the Law, and she wasn’t even aware that there was one,” Jethro answered.

“Now, how can anyone be on the wrong side of the Law and not know it ?”  Sam queried.

“Well, a little over a year ago, Cheyenne got pulled over for a faulty back light.  It appears that one of her elderly clients ran into the side and back of her van, and broke-out her whole back-light panel, when they were backin’ out of the garage to go visit a friend of theirs.  Cheyenne was inside the old man’s house busy cookin’ his supper and  cleanin’ up when the accident happened,”  Jethro began.

“Cheyenne, bein’ the do-it-yourselfer, that she was raised to be, went out and bought some red tape to cover the back light panel up with, ’cause the ole light bulb was still workin’. It was just a temporary set-up until she had the time to head down to the junkyard and get a new used back-light panel for a few dollars less than the wholesale units they wanna rip you off for at the auto places.”

“Then, of course, her bein’ the lame-brained softy that she is, she refused to get in touch with the insurance companies, and have the old man pay for it, as he should have, because she didn’t want his car insurance to go up, and the accident had barely even put a dent into his ole‘ Oldsmobile.”

“What ?”  Sam said in disbelief.  “And you let that go down when you heard about it ?”

“That girl’s got a head as hard as a mule’s.  No one can tell her anything, when she feels as though she’s protectin’ somebody, “  Jethro said in exasperation.  “You know that, as well as anybody, Sam.  She said that she was plannin’ on gettin’ rid of her ole van pretty soon anyway, and gettin’ herself a brand new car that didn’t burn so much gas.  So, I just figured that it wasn’t worth arguin’ much over after she told me that.”

“You’ve gotta’ point to be made there, Jethro,”  Sam admitted.  “Go on with the story.”

“Well, when she was on her way home the police stopped her for the broken tail light.  After listenin’ to her explain what had happened, they decided not to give her a ticket.  But when they asked for her auto insurance, she realized that she had flung it into the back of the van, with the rest of her mail, instead of placin’ it in her glove compartment as she should have.”

“So, she started for the side panel of her van to swing it open in order to get her insurance papers, and the police got all nervous, and told her not to do that.  In fact, Cheyenne, explained that she needed to open it up so that she could get her insurance papers, and they kept insistin’ that she couldn’t do it.”

“Then she asked them to open up the side of her van for her so that she could get them the inusrance papers that they needed.  And, amazingly, they told her that they were not gonna’ do that either.”

“Next thing Cheyenne knew, she had a ticket written up for not havin’ auto insurance, and got a warnin’ on top of that for the back tail light, and that was the whole reason that they stopped her to begin with.”

“What ?”  Sam said incredulously.

“That’s right.  And they told her that she’d have to show up at the Courthouse with her proof of insurance, which was sittin’ right there just a few feet away in the back of her van with the rest of her stuff,”  Jethro said shakin’ his head in dismay.  “That girl has always been a little disorganized.”

“They gave her a ticket for not havin’ auto insurance that she really did have, simply because there must have been some kinda’ rule about their not allowin’ anybody, includin’ themselves, to open up the side slidin’ door of a van ?”  Sam asked.

“Yep, you’ve got the picture,”  Jethro said.

“So, did she ever get down to the courthouse ?”  Sam asked.

“Nope, she forgot all about it, until she got a letter in the mail tellin’ her that she had missed her court date.  Her schedule is always busy.  Cheyenne works sixteen hour or more days, five to six days a week as it is.  So, she just decided to pay the amount of the fine in the letter, and put an end to it.”

“So, how did she and the Law get sideways a year later ?”  Sam asked.

“Well, it appears that when she paid the fine, that she was admittin’ that she was guilty of somethin’ that she was never guilty of.  She had auto insurance when those policemen pulled her over.  They just wouldn’t allow her to get at it,”  Jethro said.  

“The State never checked her insurance records, as they very well could have on one of their fancy-pantsy computers, in order to validate that what she had told them all along was true.  That she had auto insurance.  And because she didn’t take time off from work to show anyone her paperwork, even though she had gone on and paid their ridiculous $385.00 fine, they suspended her driver’s license because of some new Law they put into place this past year,”  Jethro said hotly.

“What ?”  Sam repeated again with emphasis.

“That’s right.  And because she was in the process of helpin’ to take care of her mom when she had breast cancer, and keepin’ up with her own work schedule, Cheyenne was never alerted to the fact that her driver’s license had been suspended.”

“They never sent her a letter tellin’ her what was goin’ on ?” Sam asked.

“If they did, she never got it.  But that girl was burnin’ the candle at both ends, and was preoccupied with her mom’s well-bein’ over the past year, “ Jethro explained.  “Cheyenne was practically livin’ with her clients and with her mom durin’ all this time.”

“Well, how did she find out about her driver’s license without bein’ put in jail, Jethro ?  Or did she wind up in the hoose-kow ?”  Sam asked pointedly.

“Nope, Cheyenne drives like an old lady now.  There was never any reason for pullin’ her over once she got rid of that ole’ van and bought her new little car,”  Sam said.  “It wasn’t until she bought herself an old motor home.  You know, one of those recreational vehicles, that she found out about her license bein’ suspended,”  Sam continued.

“But the funny thing is that all through the County Court House process of her buyin’ the motor home, and payin’ the State for the Title and Taxes on it.  And her havin’ to get the thing inspected and all.  Not one person said a word to her about her driver’s license bein’ suspended.  Nope, not a peep, “  Jethro said suspiciously.

“Not one word from any of those folks from any of those State offices about her driver’s license ?  She didn’t pop up on anybody’s radar ?” Sam asked with a frown.

“Nope, not a one,”  Jethro said definitely.

“Well, then how did Cheyenne find out about her driver’s license bein’ suspended ?”  Sam asked.

“Well, about a month after she got the auto insurance on the motor home, her insurance company calls her up, and tells her that the year’s worth of auto insurance that she had just purchased for a pretty sum of money was goin’ to be worthless by the end of the month, because they had just received notice from the secondary insurance company actually holdin’ her insurance claim, about her driver’s license bein’ suspended,” Jethro said.

“Needless to say, Cheyenne was taken aback.  She had no idea that she had been drivin’ around the State with an invalid driver’s license.  So, she called the Motor Vehicle Department immediately, and some Robot Voice gave her an on-line site to get onto.  Seems like the whole world is bein’ taken over by machines now,”  Sam added.

“Anyway, she paid the additional $205.75 fee on-line, but wanted to know why her driver’s license had been suspended in the first place, and why she had to pay the extra fine.  “Cause six hundred dollars is a lot of money for a Workin’ Class Girl.  Especially when she hadn’t done anything wrong in the first place.  It was her client that had run into her and put her back-light out.  And she had auto insurance that day that the police would not let her get to it.  She was madder than a wet hen !”  Jethro exclaimed.  

“So, she kept after it, until she finally got a real Human Bein’ on the other line.  And that’s when she found out about it all bein’ related to the new Law, which takes anyone’s driver’s license away if they have unpaid fees, whether they know about those fees or not,” Jethro said.  

“You see, they threw more fees at her for not showin’ up at the Court House.  It didn’t matter that she had paid the $385.00 fee for the ticket, a year ago.  In fact, like I told you before, they called that an admission of guilt.  And that she still needed to prove to them that she had auto insurance the day she had gotten pulled over for the tail light that old man busted out on her van.  An accident that she never got paid for because she didn’t want to get the old man in trouble with his insurance company,”  Jethro sighed.

“What a mess,”  Sam said.

“You bet it is.  Because even though she paid the fines, she got further punished by the State for nothin’ at all.  She’s had to miss three days of work on top of that, because she can’t legally drive yet.  In fact, she can’t drive again until they clear her up at the Motor Vehicle Department, and give her the papers sayin‘ that she can drive again.  So, a Soul that really can’t afford to lose any money at all has lost almost a thousand dollars over an accident that was not her fault, and for not havin’ auto insurance that she had all along,”  Jethro complained.

“What a waste of Time and Money, Sam !  How do they expect Regular and Poor Folks to keep up with all of those expensive fines and fees, and keep a roof over their heads if they can’t even drive to get to work simply because they don’t have the money to pay those fines and fees to begin with ?  They’re makin’ folks Criminals just because they’re Poor or in Cheyenne’s case, just plain disorganized.  It makes no sense.,”  Sam growled.

“If you ask me, the Citizens in this State have got a whole lot more Legal Offense to deal with than Legal Defense,”  Sam said as he spit onto the ground in front of his dusty boots.  “Where in the world do people come up with such ridiculous Laws and things like this, Jethro ?”  

“Why the great State of Texas, Sam.  Where else ?”