The only thing that really tee'd me off was I got a parking ticket in January, sicker than heck, just wanting to run into a store across the Cabrini "RED" buildings. In front was a bus stop, never utilized. The only other spot was where the rear end of my car partially blocked the sidewalk, because the owner himself parked in a stupid spot, that preventd customers to run in and out. All I wanted was a can of soup.
I normally would expose my handicapp sign, but in this case, there was what is required by law, no handicapped space. Snow was piled a few feet from the curb.
I was in that store no less than five minutes, only to have two squad cars pull up, as if I robbed the place. The officer marked off that I was blocking a driveway (what driveway?), parked three feet from the curb, (yep, the ice piled up was that far away from the curb...and obstruction of traffic (nothing there at that corner except a closed up building, and I was aligned in the same position as the owner's car. I later contacted the owner to ask if he called the cops on me...and he didn't. I guess they needed revenue after I attended the court hearing and the "REFEREE", not a judge, threw out all allegations on the tickets where the fines were rediculous.
I thought everything was fine, since I had an interpreter to relate for me, because in a busy courtroom with gangs chained together, she was my witness. Only thing was, on the first court appearance, they had no record of my tickets or "file". I didn't think that was a big deal, considering the "REFEREE" himself didn't understand the charges and referred it to some other person (I suppose a public lawyer of somekind, who advised the referee that the ticket made no sense, to throw it out.) I thought everything was fine, threw the tickets out.
A month later I got a notice that I didn't appear in court, was fined double/to reappear. I called the clerk's office in the Hammond City Court and explained all this. She actually asked me "How are you going to prove you were in court?" I replied, "You ordered the interpretor for me and here's her name and number." My sis -in-law, who was calling the interpretor, was told by the interpretor that it often happens they loose the files, that I was required to bring in the so-called dismissed tickets. I burned them.
Short story long, because we never got a formal letter saying those fines were thrown out and had to re-appear, that REFEREE was a different one, and the woman whom I was told tells the ref's what she thinks, and NOT THE TRUTH that they made a terrible paper-shuffling mistake, the REFEREE was so perplexed and said, "Just pay the now reduced fine of $25.00 so we can get rid of this thing."
My interpretor was so mad, she told me that woman in court tells the REF's what she thinks...and she had no business telling a REF (NOT A JUDGE) some excuse to make it look like they didn't do their job, throw the tickets out...but made it sound like I never was in court before. I was so furious. I didn't get treated fairly. Since when is a court ran by REFEREES and not legal judges that are qualified? It is to me a money-run business with no real people that are judges. I gladly would run to Crown Point where I could be heard by qualified judges and a clerical staff that doesn't call the shots.
Sorry, it's a Kangaroo court. Who throws out tickets only to call you back, to say you were never there in the first place, and that you owed triple of $25.00 of four counts? And they ask YOU to prove you were at the original court date, when they were the ones that arranged and paid for the interpretor? I can hear, but not in church, meetings or a crowded classroom such as Hammond City Court.
I've never experienced such an inept court. A zoo. And believe me, I've gone on my own to court several times without an interpreter, and a judge made sure I heard him and I made sure I heard him. In Hammond, I took no chances, based on the boxes checked that were not concievable for someone to be blocking a driveway that didn't exist. A business that by the Fed Mandated Disability Act that each business should provide one or more handicapped spots, and by all means, not have ice on the street, no where to park, and an unsafe sidewalk full of ice. The owner didn't get cited, I did. He broke the law, the city didn't clear the ice off the streets, the side walks were ice, and all for a can of soup...well, it just wants me to tell you the Hammond Court is not full of judges. Rather, "Referees", like calling the shots in a football game in the winter.
Either they upgrade the process, and put qualified people in, like, real judges that don't listen to a shuffling-paper flunk that calls the shots for the many repeat mistakes they make, for failing to do their paperwork. It's a joke, in my opinion. Of course, I paid the $25.00 as the REF suggested, "to make the problem go away". Guess what? They still have their problems, but now I know what it takes to fight them: never destroy your documentation and assume they DID their paperwork.
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