Mason Adams has a nice article in the Roanoke Times about Dels. Griffith and Kilgore’s speeding tickets for driving 80 in a 65 MPH zone. Del. Griffith, the passenger in Kilgore’s car at the time that he got the ticket, is representing Kilgore as his attorney in the case. What Adams does well with this story is ignore the tempting angle to go after Griffith for inappropriately representing Kilgore, as well as ignore the “do as I say not as I do” angle. That would be too pat and, I think, wrong. Instead, Griffith is presented as a guy who is reasonably representing a friend, and the two are shown as being like so many people — they drove too fast, they got caught, end of story. So it goes with a citizen legislature. I’ve never gotten a speeding ticket, because I rarely drive over the speed limit, but there but for the grace of God go I and all that business.
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Defending speeding tickets in court is one of the few places where Woody Allen’s axiom, “90% of success is showing up” seems to apply. The judge is likely, but far from certain, to knock it down to 1-9 over the limit from 10-19 just b/c you came to court. You’ve got court costs to pay, so the financial penalty is a wash, but you do get 1 fewer point on your driving record.
Big Ups to Trooper Umberger for ticketing not one, but two delegates. Any officer with aspirations of a higher position could have easily let them go and placed a couple chalk marks in the ‘you owe me’ category.
Betcha good money they were both going way over 80 mph and the officer wrote it down as 80 so they wouldn’t get the reckless driving charge.
Ok, Jon. I’ll take your bet. How much?