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Above the Law
I had been a judge less than a year when I took a call from a fellow who claimed he was a lawyer from San Antonio and one of his civil clients had gotten a speeding ticket driving through Austin. He was calling to “take care of it.”
Some judges from other states were shocked to learn that traffic offenses were a crime in Texas. In many states, they are “civil infractions,” which I would translate as revenue sources, because it’s hard to imagine winning one at trial with a civil burden of proof (preponderance of the evidence) rather than a criminal one (beyond a reasonable doubt).
Speeding was a petty misdemeanor, punishable by fine only, and it was not unusual for wealthy people with a lawyer on retainer to give their tickets to the lawyer to enter a plea. So I explained to the San Antonio lawyer about our standard fines and told him that if he had any mitigating circumstances to bring up I could put him on with one of the prosecutors right then. I was just launching into making the ticket go away with a Defensive Driving course when he interrupted my spiel.
“No, I’m calling to take care of it. He has so many tickets that his license is in danger, so I need to, you know, take care of it to save his license. How much will that cost?”
There was a moment of silence while I got over being stunned, and then I asked him why he thought anybody’s…
