Any lawyers on the board??? need help!!!

I'm no lawyer BUT-

Have you actually been into court? Bail amounts are not the same as fines.. I've had some tickets carry $2500 bail amounts and the reality was $100 out of pocket and applicable county taxes and fees tacked onto that. Don't show up to court and you're on the hook for the full amount- that's bail.

Secondly, you don't really do community service to pay something off, it's usually added onto a fine (or sentence) at the judge's discretion. You will have the option to make payments on the fine (generally within a year's time). Even if I'm completely wrong on the above, it's entirely possible to change the venue/area in which you're doing the community service in, you just have to return the completion papers to the court in which you were sentenced.. the CS is setup and handled by a third party, not the court.

And a final point- I could be wrong, but a urination in public ticket could be grounds for making you a sex offender in some areas (not exactly sure what the specifics are) so that cop could've been doing you a huge favor in the long run.

Are you going up on Monday because that's when the court date is or just to get it over with? It might give you some piece of mind to sit in court and watch the process beforehand (this particular misdeameanor will probably come up a few times knowing the UCSB crowd) so that you know that the score is.

..how was the Isle Vista Halloween weekend anyways? Still a madhouse?

 

Come on man, what did you expect?

 

A friend of mine was drunk and going home (he wasnt the driver) and pulled over on the highway to take a leak. Cop drove by and he got a ticket for indecent exposure - bam - registered sex offender.

You got off reasonably lucky. Go to court, see if they will plead it down. They are going to want $$$ thats their racket. If you dont have it, you can ask for time to pay (up to one year, as CMY noted). If you offer to do CS, they will probably still charge you something, but possibly not as much. If you plead with the judge and ask for CS because you have no money, he may take pity and give you a few hours and drop the fine alltogether.

 

You don't need a lawyer, you need a Urologist.
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As the saying goes.... Don't do the crime if you can't pay the time.

 

And, a 12 step.

 

It sure does if they catch you!

BTW I think you need to talk to the DA and not the Judge. The DA is the guy that decides whether to prosicute (sp?) you or not.

 

Yeah, I'd say the whole extra $532.00 "thing" is chickensh!t but someone has to pay for the new bus stop at the end of the street!

 

Try telling that to the judge.

 

As someone stated earlier, talk to the DA. He or she has the power to decide whether or not to prosecute you or even pull the ticket.

Speak to the judge only as a last resort.

 

You won't get any traction from the judge. He has better things to worry about. You need to speak with the DA's office and find out why they charged you with a a violation of California Penal Code 374.3(a) and not merely urinating in public. The police may have that discretion, but you should at least get an explanation of why you were ticketed that way. That is not to say that you will have any luck in reducing the fine.

In the end, you will be lucky to get it reduced to a urinating in public ticket. Don't expect to get off easier than that. I doubt you will get community service since you live in LA and the ticket cam from SB. As a visitor to the community, they will not likely afford you the benefit of the doubt for CS.

 

I know someone that this happened to. It was down in Tampa during Gasperella and all the port-o-pot lines were really long. So he went behind the port-o-pot's and got busted. Now he is a convicted sex offender and has to register wherever he goes. He lost his job as well....I personally think it's ridiculous to group a child molestor and someone peeing on a tree in the same catagory, but thats how screwed up some of our laws are.

Consider yourself lucky....If your driving a new CLK Mercedes Benz (W209 bodystyle), you can afford 1,000 bucks.

 

go to the da's office and ask to talk to the prosecuting attorney for your ticket

 

Part 1: Yes, I am an expert for 3 reasons ( I am a mammal, I am familiar with the metabolic rates and nourishment requirements of newborns, and I have written a paper on the process).

Part 2: I partially agree that he should pay the fine (he violated an ordinance), however:

Urinating on the ground is better for the environment than doing so in a toilet (add nitrogenous nutrients to the surroundings, or cause a minimum of 2 gallons of water to be reprocessed).

The person I originally quoted mentioned the fact that some people have been labelled as sex offenders (a LIFE altering event!) for urinating in public. Both urinating and breast feeding involve display of organs related to sexuality in the course of a natural process. Any heterosexual woman that has given birth after being inseminated by a male partner and still denies that the breast is sexual should answer two questions: Did your partner stimulate one or both of your breasts during the conception of your child? Did this stimulation add to your state of arousal? (Questions based on another paper I wrote years back).

 

You are not an expert in this area no matter how academic your knowledge may be. The only true experts on breast feeding are the women who do it.

 

Wow, ANOTHER man professing to be an EXPERT on what it is to be a woman. What are you, a hermaphrodite? Funny how public displays of breasts for the objectification of women and titillation of men is perfectly acceptable, yet the use of breasts for their BIOLOGICAL purpose offends losers such as yourself. You have a problem with public displays of breasts??? I'll see you in one of the many NWS threads that pop up around here, with pictures of women with mutilated DDDD cups then.

Breastfeeding is a natural process and I find YOUR attitude disgusting, not breastfeeding. Get a life mammologist.

 

Wow! Some pretty amazingly harsh words. Signs of someone who cannot have a cogent argument.

If you re-read my posts, you will see that I NEVER found breastfeeding as offensive. I in fact presented my paper on the subject to La Leche League with excellent response.

If you also re-read my posts, you will see that I distinctly labelled breastfeeding a natural process.

Also, I never claimed to be an expert on what it is to be a woman. Apparently many women aren't experts either, or there would not be a need for the fine folks at La Leche League.

Give any lucid rebuttals to any of these replies & I'll get back to ya.