Straight Talk is really iPhone UNfriendly because they assume a lot in asking you to take a picture of the IMEI number on the back of the phone and also, in one place, mention taking your battery out to see the IMEI number–that’s not going to happen on an iPhone.  All those assumptions are that you purchased a straight talk phone and are not a “bring-your-own-phone customer.”My court date is in only 16 days so that run-around is not going to work.  I guess here’s where my cheap cell service comes back to bite me.  Luckily I use a google voice number so I can give VERY DETAILED phone records.

Update June 16, 2014:  After going through all the run-around with Straight Talk and mailing them the request they ended up calling me saying that their form is wrong and all I need is the cell phone number (and not the IMEI number) and that I needed to re-fax in the form.  I did but it’s been over 2 weeks now and I still have not received any records from them.  I called them back today to inquire about it and when I called they said they’d need to transfer me to a different department and I was transferred to a message that just told me to do what I’ve already done… ugh.  I guess that’s what I get for saving money with Straight Talk.

Court Day Details

My court time was 9:00 AM but I didn’t want to mess with parking so I took the train.  The Brown/Purple line has a stop 3 blocks away from the court’s location at 400 W Superior St:

Brown/Purple Line Location in reference to the court

I got off the train around 7:45 in plenty of time to stop by Starbucks, which is close.  Here’s a map of all the important locations 🙂

Location of Starbucks in reference to the train stop and court

After grabbing a cold coffee beverage I went straight over to court to ask questions for this posting.  I walked over to the court building and this is what the entrance looks like:

400 W Superior City of Chicago Central Hearing Facility

I went on in at 8:05 AM and was greeted by a security officer who informed me that I couldn’t bring my drink in.  When I told him the type of ticket I had he told me that the hearing court doesn’t open up until 8:20 AM.  I went back outside and took note of the parking situation on the street.  There is pay by the hour parking on the street:

Street parking on West Superior Street

The current rates are as follows:  8AM-12AM Monday-Sunday, 4 hours max, $4/hour

Street Parking Rates outside the courthouse

At 8:05 there were plenty of open parking spots on the Wednesday I was there.

Entering the Courhouse

At 8:20 AM I went back into the court building and went through security.  You must run any bags and the contents of your pockets through an x-ray machine.  I wasn’t required to take off my shoes or belt, which set off the machine when I walked through.  The security officer had me step aside and used a wand on me and then let me go.  One thing to note is that you are allowed to bring in your cell phone and you can bring in a bag with a laptop.  You cannot bring in any pocket knives or any tool that might be used as a weapon, for example a screw driver.  After I got through security I was told that things didn’t open until 8:30 AM (which was different than I was first told).

Entering the Courtroom

There were about 10 seats available for people waiting to sit in and by the time I got comfortable there were at least 20 people there waiting.  At 8:27 AM everyone who had been sitting or standing and waiting formed a line in response to the movement of staff behind the temporary barrier in the hallway.  At 8:30 AM the security guard the security guard removed the temporary barrier and asked everyone to come in.  There was a kind of help desk in the hall there and the person began telling everyone that they could proceed directly to their court room if they had a copy of their ticket and it indicated a court room on it.  If you didn’t have a copy of your ticket there was a list on the wall that you needed to look through with court room numbers and names in alphabetically listed below and find your docket number and then get some paperwork to take in.  There were multiple lists for each court room number and each list was separately alphabetized.  Just for curiosity I looked down the lists for my name but didn’t ever see it.  I went ahead and then went to my room and was the first one in court room 101:

Court Room 101

It was extremely quiet in the courtroom with little noise coming in from the hallway.  Occasionally I’d hear the sound of an electric latch being unlocked down the hall off of the back of the courtroom.  It was loud enough to make you want to jump to attention and wondered if you’d hear someone say “all rise.”  No one ever said that though and never did the electric latch sound precede someone coming in.

The action starts

At 8:52 AM a lady in a pink sun dress came in and asked at least one man to take off their hat.  She sat in the center judges chair and logged into the computer and began to do some administrative things.  At this point someone’s phone in the audience rang and she responded by saying that that was a good reminder for people to turn their phones off.  It wasn’t long before another person’s phone rang out loud though.  The lady didn’t respond to the second call.  She was very friendly and joked with us about the hot weather.  She also put out a name plate that read: Julie Haran-King Administrative Law Judge.  Someone asked a question and as part of her answer she jokes, “I just work here.”

At a few minutes before 9 AM she started a digital counter on the desk and drew notice to it and said that this meant that they were now being video recorded.  At this point a couple people realized that they needed a copy of their ticket but didn’t have one.  Judge Julie indicated they needed to go back out and get a copy.

At 9:00 AM a lady came around and collected everyone’s ticket and left the room.  There were about 10 of us in the room by this time, a couple people were just accompanying the ticket holder.  Some people subsequently came in and there was some confusion since their tickets had not been picked up in the first batch.

The Judge Addresses the Small Crowd

Judge Julie then addressed us all and began to explain what was going to happen.  I couldn’t write it all down but here’s some things she mentioned:

• The City attorney will speak to each person individually and ask what you want to do.
• the City attorney does not represent you and cannot give you legal advise.
• The City attorney will offer you a deal.
• If you enter a plea first, you’ll be asked by the judge how you plea, you need to tell the judge what you told the attorney.
• If you want to contest your ticket the City Attorney will look at the ticket and determine whether they feel they have enough proof to take it to a hearing.  “Preponderance of the evidence” is the deciding factor.
• The police office DOES NOT need to appear.  The ticket is their sworn statement.  She also referred to some law passed by the city council that makes it that they don’t need to appear.  I don’t know if this is the case in traffic court or only for a non moving violation like the ticket I had.
• After you have presented your evidence you cannot present anymore evidence.
• “Liable” means you must pay the fine, which will be determined later by the judge.
• “Mitigation” is where you can argue for a lower fine.
• If you are found liable then you have 30 days to pay or set up a payment plan.
• If you don’t pay it will be turned over to collections and there will be extra fines.
• “Not liable” is when you are considered innocent and will owe nothing.
• You may submit a “motion to set aside” to get a new court date for a legitimate reason (forgetting about it or not reading your ticket and missing your court date do not count as legitimate reasons).
• “Timely” means 21 days.

My options

Plead Liable: i.e. admit you are guilty and pay a $90 fine and $20 in court fees.  You are getting the equivalent of a parking ticket, it doesn’t go on your driving record.

Amend Charge: You are taking a plea deal at a lesser charge and accepting 8 hours of community service plus $20 in court fees as your payment.  They hinted that the community service would be picking up trash at some location that they would indicated on a piece of paper they would give you later.  At some point they warned us that if we took the amended charge and didn’t show up for the community service then a warrant would be put out for our arrest.

Contest Charge: Here you are saying you are innocent and want to to a hearing.  If you contest you loose the options to plead liable or amend the charge and if you are found guilty then the judge has discretion to fine you up to $500.  You will go before the judge and make a case on how much you should have to pay if you are found guilty.

It’s official–I’m innocent

My “non-suit” (i.e. not guilty) paperwork, Penalties: $0.00

Subject observed holding a cellular device while driving a motor vehicle.

That is not enough evidence to prove that I was “using” my cell phone while driving, which I in fact was not.  So if that is the evidence against you and you don’t want to pay up the $100 fine I’d say contest it because you’ll get the charge dropped like in my case.  I didn’t even need to present any evidence.  Time to go back to work.

Other useful links:

• Illinois Driving Laws
• Parking Ticket 101: Fighting Cell Phone, Texting Tickets
• Google Takeout — Download Your Google Voice Data (and any other personal Google data)
• An attorney’s website that states Chicago’s Cell Phone Law: 9-40-260 Use of mobile telephones
• Chicago Decoded: 9-76-230 Use of mobile telephones