ROBERT pleads not guilty

I appeared in traffic court at the Harbor Justice Center - Laguna Hills yesterday. The court was presided by Judge Lyle Robertson. I wasn’t clear about the procedures for traffic court as it varies from civil procedure but knew that I was going to plead not guilty to all the charges from two different citations. Usually, a bail has to be paid before a traffic matter goes to trial. One alternative is to spend time in jail. That way the judge fulfills his statute requirements. I was ready to do just that because I didn’t have money to post bail so I took the bus just in case I had to spend time in County Jail. Fortunately, Judge Robertson did not require me to post bail and set my cases for trial on two different days – the 17th and 18th of June 2009. One ticket would have required a bail of $238.50 and the other $1071.00.

This demonstrates the inefficiency of the court system as both tickets could be consolidated. Both cited CA Vehicle Code (CVC) 4000 - Expired Registration. It can be said that it has common questions of law, fact and evidence. The clerk told me that they do this because the scheduling system uses the deputy’s last name (first letter of the surname), which didn’t make sense to me. 

Before I left, I took a couple of “Subpoena Forms” from the clerk and will be sending requests for production of documents and begin full discoveries against the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. This will be the precursor to a full-blown federal case that I am preparing.

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