Time Off Work.... 1 hour.
River North Meter Parking..... $1.25
Pleading my case today against a very aggressive City of Chicago prosecutor who was looking to drain my pockets and find me guilty.... Priceless.
Hearing the judge say "not liable...." Savings: $25 to 100.00 - plus $25 court cost.
Being found not guilty of riding my bike on the sidewalk and watching the 'wet behind the ears' city lawyer walk away from the bench upset and defeated.... More than Priceless!
11 comments:
EXCELLENT!
That was great! Good for you!
Was the police officer there?
I was chomping on the bit wanting to go head-to-head with Sergeant Baranowski in the court of LAW. The Sergeant and his three officers were no-shows.
This slick, fresh out of college city lawyer (see future hack) vigorously defended the ticket in their place. According to the court of law, he had that right.
He blah, blah, blah'd me and the judge to death with his fancy lawyer talk. Trying to have my evidence and rebuttals to Sergeant Baranowski's accusations dismissed.
Like I said, I was having a field day with this unprepared, but overly aggressive attorney trying to sock it to me.
By the time I had finished dizzying him with my high school education - he didn't have a clue which direction was north or west. He had an assistant lawyer go get a Chicago map book. (Not kidding)
The judge mentioned afterward, I was having way too much fun at this. He was right.
Footnote: I requested the footage from the Blue Light Camera during the hour in question the next day and was denied.
It was like the deck was stack against me from the start of this case.
I went back and recreated the entire scene, from every conceivable angle, in digital and video photographic evidence, for the judge to view.
Plus I brought google maps of the section of Morse Avenue that was in question.
I had diagrams, flow charts, curb-cuts on the sidewalk in question.
ROTFL Okay, no flow charts. But I did shoot photos of the curb-cut parking at the Morse Meat Market drive-way....... That was part of my case. If I was on the sidewalk at all, it was here where I mounted my bike to proceed to the street. That little driveway portion of the sidewalk where cars cross over.
Heck, if cars could be on that portion of the sidewalk, why not bikes?
It was a thing of beauty.
The transcripts are available if anyone wants to go get them.
Link up the transcripts.
The only thing I got was a $0 dollar print-out receipt and the words "not liable" - "no court costs" typed on it.
This guy, Sergent Baranowski is a real piece of work in terms of his attitude. He responded to a request for a 'supervisor' from Sister C,(President of the HWM Playlot Parks Advisory Council), a couple of nights ago, to deal with problems at the children's Harold Washington Memorial Playlot (11 yrs & under) regarding teens and adults hanging out in the playlot. This e-mail was sent to Commander Caluris a result:
Bcc: NHNA Members
Commander,
Your Sgt. Beranowski spoke to Sister Cecilia about 15 minuets ago and refused to deal with our Playlot situation, saying "the sign doesn't say people over the age limit can't be hanging out in the Playlot and that he would rather have them hanging out there than on the street" He further said."you can complain about me all you want, I could care less."
Excuse me!!! What the hell is that and what kind of message does it put out about the park ordinances? We need to get this straightened out right away and I mean before our discussed meeting. As a taxpayer and citizen, I'm appalled with this Officer's attitude. Your comments at our meeting and instructions to your officers last night had given us hope that the neighborhood could expect proactive attention to these issues. We look forward to hearing from you on this ASAP.
Mike
NHNA
IMO, what we don't need working for US(least they forget we pay their salaries)are police officers who are wise guys and a--holes with attitudes!
Congrats on the dismissal Craig.
Ha. Congrats.
way to go!!! LOL
Post a Comment