On September 11, 2006 I was returning to Ohio after attending my cousin funeral in a rented Red PT Cruiser. I heard years ago that it is a fact that red cars and sports cars get stopped for speeding the most. So, I got stopped for speeding and received a ticket for $140. At the time I was in grad school and money was tight but I was willing to pay whatever I needed to pay. I make all of my payments using electronic means and when I could not find a website for NC that took electronic payments, I did not pay. Months went by and because I did not live at the address on my license, I did not receive any threatening letters to pay or have my license suspended. Five months after I received my ticket, my license was suspended and my name was entered into the National Drivers Registry preventing me from driving legally. Of course I did not know this for sure, but I assumed it but kept on driving anyway.
In March a friend from Finland was in town and I decided to take her to DC for the weekend. About three hours outside of Columbus, I was stopped for “driving too close” and it was discovered that my license was suspended and I could not drive the car. The officer took us to Burger King up the street, told me that he could have arrested me and left. He did not mention that he stopped me for completely bogus reasons in the first place. He also charged me with driving with a suspended license and with no license.
I had a court date for the following Wednesday at 8:00am. The court house was three hours away. I could not drive there and I was not about to ask anyone to drive me there at 4am so I took a bus the night before leaving my friend alone in my apartment while I stayed at a hotel near the court house in Zanesville, OH. There were two busses leaving town that next day, one at 10:30am and one at 4:00pm. If I was lucky I would get out of court in time to get back early. The punishment for my crime was a maximum of six months in jail, $1000 or both. During the mass hearing, there were about 50 people there, the judge was not giving out the harshest sentences but he was not being soft either. I was one of the last people to go and I had to explain my situation to the judge. I pleaded “no contest” to both charges. Because I was charged with no license and suspended license, the suspended license charge was thrown out even though I admitted to driving with a suspended license. However, I was charged with driving too close and I could have fought it but how would I convince a jury that I was not driving too close, besides, that would mean that I would have to go back to court so I pleaded no contest, was found guilty and paid the $110 ticket. When I got back to Columbus I paid NC $190 and I would have to pay Virginia to reinstate my license, which was another $95.
So far I have paid $140 to NC plus a $50 late fee, $50 for a bus to and from Zanesville, $65 for a hotel, $110 ticket to Ohio for a grand total so far of $415.
Time passes. I start to drive around Columbus with a suspended license and eventually fly to DC to get my license renewed.
My first day at the DMV, I forget my passport for proof of legal presence. I go back to get it and pay the $95 reinstatement fee. When I return and I am seconds from getting my license when the woman behind the counter says “uh oh” and tells me that I have to call NC because there is a problem. I discover that I own NC another $50. I send them a check overnight only to discover that my account is overdrawn by $867. It turns out that someone used my check card to go to Walmart and spent $700.Talk about stress. The check I just wrote to NC was now going to bounce and there would be other charges no to mention that I would not have my license still. I could not work until I got my license because I drive a Trolley and give tours of DC. I went to the bank and got everything worked out, they returned the money and eliminated the fees. The check did not bounce. I went back a few days later and got my license and started working the next day. So I will never do that again but it does suck that NC does not do electronic payments. All in all that $140 ticket cost $560.
