Jennifer’s Trial
From James Donahue’s Journal
When Jennifer started attending classes at Saginaw Valley Community College she first moved into a small one-room apartment in a rickety hotel in the old part of Saginaw. I don’t remember why or how we picked that place for her to stay. It was a real firetrap and filled with tenants that were one step above skid-row.
Doris and I spent one weekend painting and decorating the room and trying to make it as comfortable as possible for Jennifer. There were two narrow wooden staircases leading in and out of the second floor where she lived. The only reason I consented to letting her stay there was because there was an iron fire escape right outside her window. Also we got to meet some of the tenants and decided that they would be no threat to Jennifer. There was one woman down the hall, however, who professed to be a practicing witch and the people living in the building said they avoided her as much as possible.
Jennifer lived there about one semester. It was a severe winter and she said the room was cold and drafty. She found better quarters the next term in Bay City. Thus we rented a U-haul and moved her. I remember that move because the rental truck broke down in Bay City and we waited most of a day for someone to come.
The college was located in a rural area directly between Saginaw and Bay City, so Jennifer needed a car to get to and from class. Unfortunately, she had some very bad luck during those early days of driving. She was involved in a fender-bender kind of mishap while attempting to make a turn in heavy traffic and got a ticket for making an “improper left turn.” A few months later, while driving on an open highway on her way to Caro, she came upon a truck stopped for a left turn. There was a long line of vehicles coming from the opposite direction so the truck remained stopped on the highway for a while. Jennifer got impatient, saw that there was a wide right shoulder, and passed the truck on the shoulder. Unfortunately, a police car was right behind her. She was stopped and ticketed for making an improper pass.
In Michigan there is a law that gives drivers accumulated points for every driving infraction they receive. After so many points, the state takes away driving privileges. After two tickets in the same year, Jennifer was now on probation.
Her third ticket was issued by a police officer using a speed trap on a popular route out of Caro. He issued Jennifer a speeding ticket at the top of a hill by the Baptist Church, claiming she was driving ten miles over a speed limit of 35 miles an hour. She pleaded with the officer, telling him that the ticket would mean she would lose her license and force her to drop out of college. She also insisted that she was not speeding. He issued the ticket anyway.
I listened to Jennifer’s story about the incident, scouted the area and found that the same officer, indeed, had a place where he set up his speed trap daily in a secluded place behind some trees at the top of a steep hill near the church. I also noticed that there was a stop sign at an intersection right at the bottom of the hill. The ticket was issued based upon the speed recorded by a radar device in the patrol car that allegedly read the speed of the car as it reached the crest of the hill. Jennifer was driving a small Chevrolet with a four cylinder engine and I began to wonder if it was possible for the car to reach that speed from a dead stop by the time it reached the top of the hill. I took the car into town and tested it. Sure enough, it barely hit the 35 mile per hour speed limit even when I had the accelerator jammed right to the floor after leaving that intersection. The only way she could have been speeding at the crest of the hill would have meant she ran the stop sign. She insisted that she did not.
Research revealed that this same police officer was notorious for issuing speeding tickets to area youth. I talked to some who, like Jennifer, insisted that they were not guilty of speeding but got tickets anyway. They usually paid the fine because they didn’t know what else to do.
We decided to fight the ticket. We mailed in the ticket and instead of sending a check to pay the fine and court costs, we checked a box that said Jennifer was entering a plea of innocent and demanded a trial. I planned to accompany Jennifer as her counsel and was confident that I had enough information collected to help her win her case.
The district court in Caro was clearly not happy about having to set up a trail to hear a traffic ticket. Jennifer’s case involved time spent by not only the judge but a court recorder, an officer acting as a bailiff, a prosecutor, and the police officer that issued the ticket. It also involved a lot of secretarial work just recording what occurred in the court. I realized that the game the town was playing, making money on young drivers on a rash of traffic offenses, had been interrupted by our decision to plead innocent.
The judge and prosecutor literally ganged up on Jennifer, who was a young and innocent teenager with no previous experience in court procedures. I, on the other hand, had years of experience working in the courts as a court reporter and knew what Jennifer needed to do to win her case. I planned to sit by her side and coach her. But the judge would not allow me to do that. As soon as he learned that I was not a licensed practicing Michigan lawyer, I was ordered to in the back part of the courtroom and not be involved in the trial. Thus Jennifer was left a sitting duck.
I had coached her and she knew what she was supposed to try to tell the court. But the prosecutor did not allow her to speak in her own defense, even though she was not represented by counsel. In short it was an illegal trial. The police officer gave his testimony. Then Jennifer was ordered to testify against herself. I stood up to object to the procedure and the judge warned me that if I said another word I would be found in contempt. The prosecutor twisted the questioning so that Jennifer could only answer yes or no to what she was asked. The judge found her guilty and she was fined about seventy dollars. Of course Doris and I covered the charge, but Jennifer lost much more. Losing her driver’s license forced her to drop out of school and thus her attempt at a college education ground to an abrupt halt.
The satisfaction we got from forcing the trial was that the county actually paid more to carry on the trial, which Jennifer was allowed under the law, than the court could collect in the fine and court costs. Thus there was a financial victory. Also, perhaps because of the bad karma evoked against that judge for allowing an illegally operated court procedure, we were somewhat pleased to learn that this judge suffered from severe headaches in the weeks after the trial. Doris was working at the hospital when he was diagnosed with having a brain tumor. It could not have happened to a more deserving person.
From James Donahue’s Journal
When Jennifer started attending classes at Saginaw Valley Community College she first moved into a small one-room apartment in a rickety hotel in the old part of Saginaw. I don’t remember why or how we picked that place for her to stay. It was a real firetrap and filled with tenants that were one step above skid-row.
Doris and I spent one weekend painting and decorating the room and trying to make it as comfortable as possible for Jennifer. There were two narrow wooden staircases leading in and out of the second floor where she lived. The only reason I consented to letting her stay there was because there was an iron fire escape right outside her window. Also we got to meet some of the tenants and decided that they would be no threat to Jennifer. There was one woman down the hall, however, who professed to be a practicing witch and the people living in the building said they avoided her as much as possible.
Jennifer lived there about one semester. It was a severe winter and she said the room was cold and drafty. She found better quarters the next term in Bay City. Thus we rented a U-haul and moved her. I remember that move because the rental truck broke down in Bay City and we waited most of a day for someone to come.
The college was located in a rural area directly between Saginaw and Bay City, so Jennifer needed a car to get to and from class. Unfortunately, she had some very bad luck during those early days of driving. She was involved in a fender-bender kind of mishap while attempting to make a turn in heavy traffic and got a ticket for making an “improper left turn.” A few months later, while driving on an open highway on her way to Caro, she came upon a truck stopped for a left turn. There was a long line of vehicles coming from the opposite direction so the truck remained stopped on the highway for a while. Jennifer got impatient, saw that there was a wide right shoulder, and passed the truck on the shoulder. Unfortunately, a police car was right behind her. She was stopped and ticketed for making an improper pass.
In Michigan there is a law that gives drivers accumulated points for every driving infraction they receive. After so many points, the state takes away driving privileges. After two tickets in the same year, Jennifer was now on probation.
Her third ticket was issued by a police officer using a speed trap on a popular route out of Caro. He issued Jennifer a speeding ticket at the top of a hill by the Baptist Church, claiming she was driving ten miles over a speed limit of 35 miles an hour. She pleaded with the officer, telling him that the ticket would mean she would lose her license and force her to drop out of college. She also insisted that she was not speeding. He issued the ticket anyway.
I listened to Jennifer’s story about the incident, scouted the area and found that the same officer, indeed, had a place where he set up his speed trap daily in a secluded place behind some trees at the top of a steep hill near the church. I also noticed that there was a stop sign at an intersection right at the bottom of the hill. The ticket was issued based upon the speed recorded by a radar device in the patrol car that allegedly read the speed of the car as it reached the crest of the hill. Jennifer was driving a small Chevrolet with a four cylinder engine and I began to wonder if it was possible for the car to reach that speed from a dead stop by the time it reached the top of the hill. I took the car into town and tested it. Sure enough, it barely hit the 35 mile per hour speed limit even when I had the accelerator jammed right to the floor after leaving that intersection. The only way she could have been speeding at the crest of the hill would have meant she ran the stop sign. She insisted that she did not.
Research revealed that this same police officer was notorious for issuing speeding tickets to area youth. I talked to some who, like Jennifer, insisted that they were not guilty of speeding but got tickets anyway. They usually paid the fine because they didn’t know what else to do.
We decided to fight the ticket. We mailed in the ticket and instead of sending a check to pay the fine and court costs, we checked a box that said Jennifer was entering a plea of innocent and demanded a trial. I planned to accompany Jennifer as her counsel and was confident that I had enough information collected to help her win her case.
The district court in Caro was clearly not happy about having to set up a trail to hear a traffic ticket. Jennifer’s case involved time spent by not only the judge but a court recorder, an officer acting as a bailiff, a prosecutor, and the police officer that issued the ticket. It also involved a lot of secretarial work just recording what occurred in the court. I realized that the game the town was playing, making money on young drivers on a rash of traffic offenses, had been interrupted by our decision to plead innocent.
The judge and prosecutor literally ganged up on Jennifer, who was a young and innocent teenager with no previous experience in court procedures. I, on the other hand, had years of experience working in the courts as a court reporter and knew what Jennifer needed to do to win her case. I planned to sit by her side and coach her. But the judge would not allow me to do that. As soon as he learned that I was not a licensed practicing Michigan lawyer, I was ordered to in the back part of the courtroom and not be involved in the trial. Thus Jennifer was left a sitting duck.
I had coached her and she knew what she was supposed to try to tell the court. But the prosecutor did not allow her to speak in her own defense, even though she was not represented by counsel. In short it was an illegal trial. The police officer gave his testimony. Then Jennifer was ordered to testify against herself. I stood up to object to the procedure and the judge warned me that if I said another word I would be found in contempt. The prosecutor twisted the questioning so that Jennifer could only answer yes or no to what she was asked. The judge found her guilty and she was fined about seventy dollars. Of course Doris and I covered the charge, but Jennifer lost much more. Losing her driver’s license forced her to drop out of school and thus her attempt at a college education ground to an abrupt halt.
The satisfaction we got from forcing the trial was that the county actually paid more to carry on the trial, which Jennifer was allowed under the law, than the court could collect in the fine and court costs. Thus there was a financial victory. Also, perhaps because of the bad karma evoked against that judge for allowing an illegally operated court procedure, we were somewhat pleased to learn that this judge suffered from severe headaches in the weeks after the trial. Doris was working at the hospital when he was diagnosed with having a brain tumor. It could not have happened to a more deserving person.