Friday, November 4, 2016
1:15am- *in a deep conversation with Rickeia cruising on I-20 trying to make it to at least catch the tail end of Friday’s night activities of USC Homecoming and lo and behold…. sirens are ringing and blue lights are flashing in my rear view mirror*
My heart dropped man.
Here it was pitch dark, no cars in sight and a state trooper was pulling two young black girls over for who knows what. All I could think about was all of the hashtags they were gonna use for us because I just knew we were about to be the next victims of police brutality.
He came to the window, asked for my license, registration, and insurance card and asked if I knew how fast I was going. I told him “70?” in an innocent, ‘I’m a good girl’ voice. He responded, “If you were going 70 I wouldn’t have stopped you” and walked back to his car. I felt like I was on trial awaiting sentence for murder charges.
Finally, this man came back with a ticket that “said” (I still don’t believe him) that I was doing 98mph in a 70mph with a $355 fine and SIX POINTS off my license.
The only thing I could think to do was CRY so I did just that. I imagined the curse out I was about to get from my parents, who both stressed to me not to speed before I left, how much the insurance was going to go up, how much money I did not have to pay for the ticket and how all I wanted to do was have a good time at Homecoming.
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My court date was scheduled for November 29, 2016 at 10:00am in Lee County. Not only did I have to work that day, but it was also the day of my last class of the semester and there was no way that I could miss it. I also didn’t want to take time off from work because I wanted to save my vacation days so that I could go home during the holidays. Worried, I called the clerk’s office trying to reschedule only to be told every single time that I called that my ticket was not in the system yet. Eventually she told me that there was a possibility that the ticket would not be in the system until the morning of my court date and that if I was not present in court, a warrant would be issued for my arrest. A WHAT? FOR WHO? NOTTT MEEEE!!
Although I try to be a thug 80% of the time, I’m scared of jail and still haven’t mastered taking a shower without dropping the soap. I went into a mini cardiac arrest. I began to panic and realized that the only other option was to try to locate an attorney who would be willing to represent me in court with such a late notice.
My Google search led me to stumble upon Nosal and Jeter, LLP located in Fort Mill, SC who said they would represent me in court if I paid them…
$350- Attorney fees and court costs
$128- *Estimated amount of how much my ticket would be lowered = $478
So I had three options:
Miss class and work for two days, fly to SC (I dang sure wasn’t driving), get a rental and drive to Lee County, sit in court all day, drive back to the airport, then fly back
Get a warrant issued for my arrest
Pay the attorney $478
Even though that unexpected $478 would hurt my pockets, getting the attorney was definitely the best option so that I didn’t have to worry about having to appear in court.
Two days after my court date, I was contacted by the attorney’s office who informed me that the case was not resolved because my attorney requested a jury trial and that I would be summoned to court again at a later date.
I was SOOO upset. I waited six weeks for this issue to be resolved and now I had to wait another six to eight weeks to hear the outcome. Things like this only happen to me.
Be patient. Trust the process.
A few weeks later, I received my summons in the mail with a new court date of January 24, 2017. The new court date came up, three days went by and I still didn’t hear from the attorney’s office so I emailed them to ask what were the latest details regarding the case. The paralegal responded and said that they were still waiting on the official disposition from the court, but that they were able to negotiate with the officer to reduce the speeding to 79/70 which was a two-point violation and $128.50 fine.
Count your blessings.
I was grateful. I screamed in the car and did another two-step shout when I got out. I told God thank you because I couldn’t even begin to imagine what the insurance rates would’ve been if I was charged with six points.
One week later, I got this email from the attorney’s office.
I went from a $355 fine and six-point violation to a $76.50 fine and ZERO points, plus I was being refunded $51.50 because they were able to get the ticket reduced lower than they expected.
I cried again. This time, tears of joy! I could not believe the miracle that God performed for me. I was upset about him requesting a jury trial without realizing that it was all a part of HIS plan.
I don’t know why God continues to pour his grace and mercy over me, but I am indeed grateful. Trust God’s purpose and know that everything will work according to HIS plan. PRAISE your way through! Be thankful for what you have and God will bless you with more. As the preacher said on Sunday, “go to God in ANTICIPATION, with the EXPECTATION, that God is going to create a MANIFESTATION.”
Peace. Love. Hennessy.