A fun day in court
No, we weren’t in trouble and I’m not being sarcastic. We had to go to the court building to meet regarding an issue and it was really just sitting in a conference room and talking, no attorneys. But the fun part was after when I told Sandy “Let’s go see some cases being heard”.
We were in a small town area north of Detroit so the building was new and the people not real criminals. Mostly teens speeding or drinking and driving.
A few good ones was the guy who was hunting for deer with a shotgun on property bordering one of the lower Michigan Metroparks. He was caught on park property. His attorney says to the judge, “If you are familiiar with the area, there is a lot of land bordering the park…” as the judge cut her off saying, “Yes, I’m very familiar with the area” …as he names off the cities and streets that border the park. The attorney continues that the area isn’t clearly marked as park property. The judge responds, “That area is clearly marked as park property. Now if I were the attorney I could have kept my mouth shut after the first response, but she just had to keep going. The guy had to pay court costs and fines.
One guy was busted for what we called “The Sanford and Son” law. This guy had junk and a car on his property, violating some ordinance. He was put on non-reporting probation.
A few folks wore suits or dressed nice, but most dressed stupid. One guy had jeans and a white T-shirt. You have one chance for a first impression and with a judge you’d think these idiots would do better.
I also got to see a former Chief County Prosecutor for Macomb County, Carl Marlinga. After hearing the case, the judge called Carl to the bench and before muting his autio you could hear him ask Carl, “how are things going?” While leaving, Carl was picking up his coat and bag a few benches in front of us and he noticed I was smiling at him. He said “Hi” and I whispered “Nice to meet you.” That was cool.
I told Sandy I should take a day off and we should go sit in court and watch the stupidity go in and out.