Ramblings from Texas

Dirty Cops and Stupid Juries

2005-01-23T22:28:00.000-06:00

Have you ever had a ticket? Worse, did you ever get it and did not deserve it? It happened to me and if you care to read, here is my story. It was tax day, April 15, 2004. I was on my way home like I was everyday at about 2:30. I was in a school zone and the speed limit was 20 MPH. I was doing 20. I came upon an intersection and the light was green. Naturally, I proceeded through the light.

The light post was on the opposite side of the intersection and a bit beyond that as well. Therefore, I had full view of that light until I was through the intersection and nearly under that light. The light was green until I was almost under it and it turned yellow.

There was a black Lincoln that was one car length behind me. How do I know? I always know who is around me and I had full view of his grill in my driver’s side mirror. Both of us certainly cleared that intersection long before the light turned red. As I traveled about 250 feet, I noticed a motorcycle cop flashed his lights at the Lincoln. I continued on.

As I got out of the school zone area, I gently took my car to 40 MPH, the posted speed limit. As I got about 1450 feet away from the intersection, I noticed a motorcycle cop flash his lights at me. This was 2.5 streets away from the intersection in question. I pulled over at the third street about 100 feet away.

The cop asked if I knew why he pulled me over and I said no. He said I ran that light back there and he would issue me a ticket. I told him the light was green and it is not illegal to go through a green light. He said he would check the lights and let me know of his findings. I later discovered he lied about letting me know. The ticket was issued on the spot.

I was told I had ten days to make an appearance and take care of the ticket. On the 10th day, I went to the courthouse and discovered they only wanted money out of me. When I said I was innocent and would not pay, they looked at me as if I was crazy! There were three of the ladies there who seemingly thought me peculiar. I said I wanted to go to court. They said they could set me up with a pre-trial. They said I could talk to the prosecutor and he would decide if the merits of my case were such that he would just throw it out.

Two months later I finally had my pre-trial. I went to the vastly over packed courthouse and patiently waited my turn. My number was finally called and I held my head high and walked up front. I started to explain how I had been wronged in this case and the prosecutor looked at me like I was crazy! Are you picking up on the theme here? The prosecutor quickly stifled me and said it would be unfair to hear the facts of the case as he would prosecute this case. I tried to tell him what the three ladies said two months before and he simply said I had to pay or go to trial. When I said I was wronged and demanded a jury trial, the prosecutor looked at me like I was crazy! There goes that theme again. Are you starting to hear psycho music playing in the background?

Two more months passed and on August 26, 2004 I finally got to go to court. I got to pick my jury and the trial began. My witness could not stay and said a few words and ushered himself out. Next, the two cops were there. They testified, I testified and the jury said I was guilty. I looked at them as if they were insane! Out of a possible $1.00 to $200.00 fine, they said I was $20.00 guilty.

I thought, am I 10% guilty? The law says you are 100% guilty or not at all. I was not 100%, 10% or 1% guilty. I am innocent! I appealed the verdict. The fine was $20.00 and court costs were $85.00. Total $105.00. In order to appeal, I had to double it, $210.00 and fill out an affidavit of my net worth.

Two months later I went for what I thought was a trial. Turns out it was another pre-trial. They tried to once again try to extort money out of me! I was feeling abused at this time. I had gone through a trial, lost, paid $210.00 to get an appeal and yet they think I want to pay this time when I am still innocent! Since I did not want to pay, I had to have a trial. I explained that is exactly what I wanted and the prosecutor looked at me like I was crazy. I hear that music.

Three more months passed by and I finally got my trial. This is now my fifth day off of work to settle an offense I never committed. Again, we picked the jury in the afternoon this time. The trial began about 2:00 O’Clock. After all the testimony, the trial ended at promptly 5:00 O’Clock. The jury went to deliberate and was immediately called back by the judge. One juror had a sick baby and had to leave. The jury could not deliberate with only 5 jurors, so they were dismissed and ordered back at 9:00 AM the next morning.

Everyone reconvened about 9:27AM the next day. The lady could not be there until 2:00 that afternoon. Again, everyone was dismissed and ordered back at 1:45 PM. The jury reconvened at 2:00 and deliberated until 3:15PM or so. They found me guilty.

I chose to have the jury assess punishment as well. Once they found me guilty, I was devastated. How could it be that two juries could come to the wrong conclusion? In hindsight, it was easy to see. I never hired a lawyer because the innocent do not need a lawyer. I was not about to pay hundreds of dollars over a $20.00 fine. I was and am in this for justice. I explained to the jury they could not have looked at the evidence.

When this second trial began, there was simply me for the defense. The state had four prosecutors against me. Keep in mind this is a class C misdemeanor. In other words, it is the lowest crime you can commit. Why did they need four prosecutors? The state hates to lose. At the end of the trial, only two prosecutors remained. I learned they get to have two closing statements. They gave their first one. I devastated them with facts and so the second prosecutor got up and simply twisted my words and lied about my testimony. It was a chop job. The state brought all its power to bear and they bought the “justice” they wanted.

Juries are made up of everyday people. These people do not understand the law. These people by and large have no pride in their civic duty. Most people do not care about right and wrong. These juries felt like my case was a waste of time. They thought I was wasting money and they thought I was guilty before the trial ever started. Also, they were mad because they had to make three trips to the courthouse and they held that against me.

The prosecutor begged them to fine me $99.99. They fined me the maximum of $200.00. The prosecutor knew I was not guilty. That is why she wanted the fine under $100.00. She knew she railroaded me, but she also did not want to lose the case. She felt guilty about lying and used that to try and make the blow softer. However, because I let the jury know how sorry they were to their faces, they again struck as hard against me as they could.

This case is one big injustice. It started when a dirty cop could not let his partner write more tickets than he did. Funny thing is, the guy in the Lincoln, never received a ticket for running a red light! That’s right! He had no insurance and was ticketed for that, but he never got a ticket for running that red light. Although he was behind me, he was not ticketed for that offense. Do you now see the injustice in all this?

What happens now? I fight on! I am trying to get to the appellate court, but I hear it is virtually impossible without a lawyer. Still, I must try to right the wrong committed against me. We need professional juries in this country and need to get rid of the sheep who dance to the tune of crooked and perverse prosecutors.

If you have read this far, thank you! If you have any advice for me, please e-mail me at dfyffe@gmail.com. If you know of anything or anyone who can help me, I will thank you in advance for sending them to me. I appreciate any help you can offer. Thanks for everything and mostly, for caring.

Starting again

2004-08-08T09:52:00.000-05:00

I am back! Did you miss me? I actually forgot about my blog, but let's put that behind us. The Colorado trip was MORE than I ever dreamed. If you want to see Gods handiwork, go to Colorado. That state is gorgeous from top to bottom and side to side. We spent twelve days there and enjoyed each one immensely. If you get a chance to go to Colorado, but you cannot spend more than one or two days, by all means, go to The Rocky Mountain National Park and spend your time there. IOt is absolutely breathtaking in every way!

What else is new with me? I have been trying to teach myself VB6. I have always been afraid of programming. Therefore, I am trying to get past that fear. Once I get it down, I plan to learn VB.net as well as VBA. I also plan to teach myself Dreamweaver MX and Frontpage 2003. From there, I will branch out into databases, mainly Access, SQL and MySql. Is that an agenda or what? I am trying to learn new skills so I can move away from telephone technical support.

Anyone ever heard of Ultimate TV? It was Microsoft's venture into Tivo space. I have had one for 3.25 years and it has been good to me. However, it is time for it to retire. I am replacing it this week with a 155 hour Tivo unit from weaknees. I'll let you know how that goes.

Finally, anyone have any recommendations for good spam filtering software? I need something. See you next time!

Syncing up

2004-06-23T23:43:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to get used to this blogging thing! I'm syncing up to the process for sure. Speaking of which, I am syncing my Ipaq currently and trying to move mail to my storage card. I have a LOT of mail so I need it off the main system memory. It's anther thing I have to learn.

My day at work was not bad. It got up to the low 90's today, not bad at all. Have you ever heard of Texas Legacies? I'll be there Friday night. It's in Palo Duro canyon. Been there twice before and it is beautiful. I'm thinking about buying another pocket PC so I can get into the wireless scene. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Full Spectrum Warrior is eating my lunch. I'm on the back end of the airport and the heavy gun keeps killing my men. Yes, my Bravo team gets tango'ed every time! I just downloaded Mail washer to help my wife rid herself of spam. If you have any thoughts on that, please let me know. Blog out!

Second entry

2004-06-22T23:23:00.000-05:00

Looks like I already skipped a day! I'm back though. I was doing something super secret and cannot reveal any details just yet. Are you a gamer? I have been dabbling in Full Spectrum Warrior on the X-Box! It is a very good and challenging game.

My electric was out for 3.5 hours yesterday due to a localized storm. That sure makes it hard to compute! I worked 11 hours today and am tired tonight, but Full Spectrum Warrior is calling me and I MUST answer the call! My Alpha and Bravo teams are counting on me. We cleared the airport last night and tonight we will kill some snipers. Bad snipers!

The weather cooled down into the 80's today thanks to more rain this morning. I work 2 more days then it is off to Colorado. I'm very excited about that. Any boxing fans out there? I have varied interest. Send me some of yours. I'll close and await tomorrow. I'll explain how the fight goes tonight. See you then! Peace out.

First Blog Entry

2004-06-20T19:59:00.000-05:00

Hello world! Isn't that the first program you write when learning any language? What will this blog be about you ask? Well, it'll be made up of my ramblings. First, I live in Texas, the GREATEST state in the union, bar none! Second, I have never blogged before. As another famous person once said, I have had no professional training in blogging.

I hope to post something everyday except when I'm on vacation which is coming up this Friday. Where am I vacationing you ask? Let me first say that you are very inquisitive! Secondly, you ask some mighty fine questions. I'm on my way to Colorado. We (my wife and I) will be exploring that state for almost two weeks. We have never been there before unless you count the time we stood on the four corners. You never heard of the four corners? Geography just isn't your strong suit in trivial pursuit now is it? Look at this link to see what it is:

The weather today was fairly warm. It got up to about 95 with a feel temp of about 105. Not bad on a cool spring day. Speaking of which, it is now officially Summer as of 13 minutes ago from my time of typing this which is Sunday, 6-20-04 at 8:13 PM CST. Do you like Spring or Fall the best? I like them both actually. Spring breathes new life into everything and Fall shows off the glory of the world. No show on earth can compare to that of nature.

If you care to contact me and ask more specific questions, I'll gladly answer them. I'll be writing more later. I hope all is well with everyone. Take care and look for more ramblings coming your way.