Vindication!

I got the most beautiful thing in yesterday's mail. That it was hand delivered to me by my daughter -- with a ear-to-ear-grin on her face -- was icing on the cake.

"Mommy, do you remember when the police were mean to you but you didn't do anything wrong?"

How could I forget. Do you remember?

To refresh your memory, I was pulled over during my last week of maternity leave when I accidentally drove right, smack in to the middle of a police "safety check" in NW DC. The fact that I had a tea-cup dog in my lap, a baby in the back, and suburban license plates on my car sealed my fate. OK, I'll say it out loud even though it's not PC...I think the color of my skin had something to do with it too.

This power-hungry police officer hated everything about me before I even opened my mouth. I told her that if she gave me a warning I'd drive straight home...not pass Go...and put my current insurance card directly in to my car. And I offered to get Geico on the phone to verify my insurance status. She looked at me, smirked, and told me that while it was her prerogative to give me a warning, she was choosing to ticket me. And she actually told me that she "wouldn't talk to nobody on the phone." Apparently proper grammar isn't a Metropolitan Police Department requirement.

So, yes, she ticketed me. Triple ticketed me. To the tune of $630. $100 for "distracted driving" even though my cell phone was on speaker; $500 for operating a vehicle without proper insurance; $30 for failure to provide proof of current insurance. Later that day, I told Lily that I was sad because the police had been mean to me. For no reason. Apparently almost 4 year olds forget nothing. She has spoken about "mean police" often since then.

I paid the $30 fine for not having my current insurance card and fought the two other tickets by mail. My letter, which my lawyer father proof-read, included language like:

Accordingly, I deny the charge of operating a vehicle without proper insurance and request that the fine from ticket 5818888801 be suspended.

and

While the recent birth of my daughter caused me to overlook the expired paperwork in my vehicle, the attached documents clearly prove that the car meets all safety, emissions and insurance standards set forth by the Commonwealth of Virginia where I live and where the car is registered.

Translation -- back off DC! While you might not like people from the 'burbs driving through your city, deal with it.

I included four attachments and, unlike the ticketing officer, used proper grammar. I reviewed DC's distracted driving law and found a loop-hole that would even get me out of the cell phone infraction. I was on the war path.

And it paid off! Since Noah and Lily beat us home last night, my darling daughter was the one who got to break the news to me. Waving the hearing record in my face, she squealed, "You don't have to pay the tickets. Good job Mommy!"

According to V. Ali, my hearing examiner, "The examiner determined that the ticket should be dismissed for one of the following reasons: there was an error on the ticket, the government was unable to establish the violation or the evidence submitted was sufficient to prove a defense of the violation." Conclusion: the ticket(s) is dismissed.

Ha, ha badge #3545; you jerk of a hostile and irrational police officer! Take that!!

So the only money that the DC Treasurer gets out of me is the modest $30 I already paid. And I can only hope that the ticketing officer hits a big pothole today and spills hot coffee in her lap. What a loser...