They decided all of the people with Sprecher were going to trial. My understanding is that normally if they don’t have time to do all the cases they just dismiss the others. But the prosecutor can choose to try them and just reset the date for those he can’t get to. He decided to do that for all of the people Sprecher is representing. So we all had to sit there until they decided they couldn’t get to us.

The person who was actually on trial has to move up to the front of the court room and sits at one of the tables with his lawyer. They pulled one of our waiting number out and moved him there.

In Texas you can have a jury trial for a speeding ticket. Since they decided to try all of David’s cases they took the oldest first. They moved all of us to one side of the court and then brought in the prospective jurors. There were 15 prospective and they needed six. The judge had each juror stand up and say their name, occupation and if they had ever been a juror before. Each lawyer made a little speech to them and asked a couple of questions.

Part of David’s speech was explaining in Texas there is no absolute speed limit. You are just required to go a reasonable and safe speed. He asked if anyone would have a problem with interpreting the law that way and one old guy who was a retired cop from Colorado said he would. They called this guy up to the bench and talked to him. I couldn’t really hear what he said but it sounded like he said “If a cop stops you, you probably did something wrong” He went back and sat with the jurors but he wasn’t picked. I asked later and he was kicked off the pool. They appeared to pick the 6 at random.

Then they had a trial. The cop was the only witness. The prosecution asked questions David asked questions. There were objections. They were sustained and over ruled. It was a lot like TV but the case was about someone going 40 in a 30 in downtown Houston.

About 15 minutes into the trial one of the court women came back to us and said “Everyone with the exception of Mr. Davis follow me”. Then everyone else got to leave. I’d planned to stay after they let us go just so I could see what the trial was like, but I didn’t get that chance. David kind of looked back at me and shrugged. We weren’t sure why I had to stay.

After the cross examination of the cop was over David told the judge he had some motions. So they took the jury out. David went up and gave three motions, which were basically three reasons the case should just be dismissed. One was that where the ticket was given wasn’t a “urban” area because there were vacant lots in it. The second was that the prosecution hadn’t even tried to show the driving was unreasonable. And lastly that the prosecutor had mispronounced some of the names on the charges. The judge ruled against him on one and three and with him on two, meaning the case was over. They brought the jury back in and told them thanks but they weren’t needed.

Then they cleared out the jurors and set up for the next case. Which it turns out was mine. They asked me up front to the defendant’s chair. While David and I discussed where West Lake Houston Parkway starts, the prosecutor got the cop and was asking him how he came up with 100 in the address. All I could hear was he kept asking “Why didn’t you start with 0?” I guess he didn’t get a good answer because eventually he came back and said he’d dismiss.

I got called up to the bench. Prosecution moved to dismiss. The judge read my name and said case dismissed.

And that was my exciting day at court. I took my tired sore body home and took a nap.