Hell in downtown Ft. Worth

[CaptainTom]

I am back in my house after having been through what I consider Ft. Worth City Court Hell.

I got a speeding ticket here in Ft. Worth. I wasnt' going as fast as the officer claims, but who can argue with LIDAR ? I could have sent it in and paid the fine and gotten two points on my license. Since the last ticket I got in Ft. Worth was at least 6 yrs ago, I decided to request deferred adjudication.
I went to the court house on Friday after Thanksgiving and discovered it was closed. I went to the court house on Saturday and was told "we only do deferreds mon. thru fri." "pay now , or come back monday!"

I'll be back !! (in my best Terminator voice)

Monday, December 1st.
Luckily found a metered parking space nearby. I put in four quarters for one hour of time figuring it would be better safe than sorry.

Went through security screening and asked where to go next. I was told to "git in line".
There were 47 people in front of me at two cashier windows.

The aroma of marijuana was pervasive. One guy was telling his friend " I been in jail lots of times, no big deal". I finally made it to the cashier window and gave the lady my ticket marked "deferred adjudication". She printed out a form and told me to go to court no. five.

I got to court room no. five and there were 45 people in there already. "Sit down". Two minutes later "give me your form". "Sit back down". The judge is letting people off from violations left and right. Most of the people have several tickets, or are already on the "time payment plan".

I get called and the ADA tells me what deferred adjudication is and that it will cost $224. There is no fine, just court costs of $25 and administrative charges of $199. If I had pled quilty and sent in the ticket the fine would have been $199.

"Sit back down".

a few minutes later the judge calls my name and asks me if I understand, yadda, yadda , yadda.
I say yes. I am directed back to the cashiers. I am told not to wait in line but go directly to window One. Window One has ten people in line. The other line still has 47 people.

" How much you wanna pay ?" " Huh ?" Didn't know I had a choice. Seems you can make a downpayment and pay the balance within 60 days. This would require a subsequent trip to Hell, so I opted to pay it all.

Walked back to my car, and had exactly TWO minutes left on the meter.

Moral of the story: If you did the crime, do the time. Send in the ticket. Pay the fine. Take the points. Stay away from City Court.

[Truckman]

Two lessons learned for me:
1.) Don't speed...
2.) Stay out of Ft. Worth...

...Ben

[Digigeek]

Two words in Fort Worth: Jim Mallory

[epoh]

Originally Posted by Digigeek

Two words in Fort Worth: Jim Mallory

^^ this. I *heart* that man. 90% of the time the officers never show up and you don't have to pay the city anything!

[Debbi]

Originally Posted by Digigeek

Two words in Fort Worth: Jim Mallory

Is he still around? I hired him highschool for a speeding ticket.

Tom, glad to see you didn't get a parking ticket in the processing of taking care of the speeding ticket.

[Digigeek]

Originally Posted by Debbi

Is he still around? I hired him highschool for a speeding ticket.

Tom, glad to see you didn't get a parking ticket in the processing of taking care of the speeding ticket.

Still around, and for $50 or so he'll deal with all the BS for you. Worth it in my opinion. And frequently will get you dismissed.

[KeithnFW]

Tom, I went through the exact same mess you went through. Mine was for an expired inspection sticker which I got dismissed. But the hassle you have to go through is punishment enough.