Happy Ending

One day, Thursday, May 13th, 2009 to be exact. James and Amy invited us to dinner at Wingers. I drove everyone and Brett came separate, straight from work. So I exited the freeway and waited for the light behind a long line of cars. The green light was really short, so I think I had to wait for the light twice... anyways, so I pushed the envelope when the light turned yellow, I went, and as I exited the crosswalk the light turned red, then a motorcycle police officer pulled out behind me, then he turned on his lights. I was in the far left lane and there was 4 lanes of traffic and no place to pull to the right side. So I decided to turn left and pull into a parking lot. As I sat in the left turn lane, the Officer came on his loud speaker and said, "Pull over." I thought, "I'm working on it". Why did he just do that? Embarrassing. So later I find out that no matter what, you have to pull over to the right. When an officer pulls up behind you, you are supposed to immediately put on your right turn blinker to acknowledge that you see him. Back to my story, I rolled down my window and he asks, standard, "Do you know why I pulled you over." Another lesson, you are supposed to say, "I don't know officer, sir." No matter what again. But I said, "You probably thought I ran that red light, but I KNOW I didn't. " He said, "I don't pull people over unless I KNOW they run a red light." Then he asks me, "Did you hear me say, PULL TO THE RIGHT?" I said, "no, all I heard was, pull over." He asked me why I pulled to the left, I told him I didn't know that I did anything wrong, then he said, "You have a CA driver's license, you should know this" and proceeded to tell me the law, then he said I won't give you a ticket for this because it's expensive. NICE! He gave me my red light ticket and before he left I expressed my gratitude for what he does and I know he is looking out for the safety of everyone. I didn't have to say anything, but maybe he had a bad day, because he wasn't very friendly. So I went to court. And another tip. I brought my kids, so they made me go first, I could have been there for hours otherwise. I plead "not guilty," I got a trial court date, paid my bail on the due date. and went to my trial yesterday. I was physically sick, I was so nervous and spent my morning reading the 2009 CA Drivers Handbook. James came as one of my witnesses and told me to say, "I'm going to exercise my right not to testify, since I have a witness." Then the officer will have to prove my guilt, then James was going to talk after him. Before the judge came in the sheriff told me that the officer dismissed my ticket. I said, "Awesome." The judge came in and called my name, then called the officer's name, he was there. Then said, "your ticket is dismissed, you will receive a refund in about 6 weeks." They will refund my bail, $435. Was it worth going to court? YES! WooHoo! I consider myself lucky, and I'll never pushing the envelope again, it isn't worth the hassle. There you go, one of my experiences, maybe it'll help you some day. I still have no idea why the ticket was dismissed. Maybe I'll find out some day.