Things moving fast. Twists & turns.(hoosjim's 15th

[hoosjim]

So, in other news...

OM may have paid my son's traffic ticket that said son received in connection with an accident a few weeks back that also totaled one of my cars.

My insurance rates are already sky high so we were going to "challenge" the traffic infraction in court-- had the kid take a driver improvement course, etc-- and hopefully have the DA agree to write it down to something non-chargeable or, better yet, get the judge to "take it under advisement" as a first offense for a kid with no priors, clean driving record, and excellent academic record. Get to court today and the lawyer I'd hired (only a fool represents himself or his near kin in court) is freaking out because "the ticket has already been paid"... which in this state is also effectively an admission of guilt. It also means the case is now "closed" and we'd need to move the court to reopen it-- which is hard without a paper trail as in this case where the fine was paid in cash... with no security camera footage of the payor. Coupled with some anomalous statements by one of the responding officers and all of a sudden it is not a question of WON my son can get the ticket written down, but WON the DA is going to charge him with something more serious like reckless driving or even hit and run. (Son pulled his car off road a block and half away to get out of busy traffic-- dumb... but it was his first accident, and the cop's notes were ambiguous enough that the DA thought it was perhaps an attempt to evade followed by an effort by my son to pay off the ticket (in cash) without anyone knowing. We talked the DA into putting away his bazooka and got out "even"... plead nolo to the original charge... but it was touch and go.

So, then I start thinking: "Who could have paid this? Could it have been inadvertent?" I speak with the clerk, who tells me that, yes, mistaken application of payments sometimes happens, and even mistaken payments by the payor... when conducting such business online because it is just a "click through" and fairly easy to make mistakes. OTOH, when someone pays in person, and especially with cash, the clerks go out of their way to create a paper trail in order to prevent mistaken payments from being made on account of the wrong ticket. IOW they make absolutely sure that the payor (who can absolutely be someone besides the person charged) is paying the ticket that they intend to pay. Per the clerk, whoever paid that ticket for my son "Either did it intentionally or is extraordinarily stupid and careless", because the clerk confirms everything before accepting payment.

So, I start thinking, who would do this? Whoever did it likely didn't intend for it to completely jack up the litigative process for us as it did, so likely someone wanting to be a good Samaritan... or assuage their conscience and get in good with me and or my W(?) The ticket was paid the Monday after our big "blow up" weekend where W went to gym, meeting OM in the process, and then I blew up, walked out, and sent several threatening texts to OM. It was also paid at 3:30 PM--- 30 minutes after OM gets off work (or at least did when I knew him as a friend). W says she "can't remember" if she mentioned S18's accident to OM on the occasions they spoke recently (Incidentally this has pushed her over the "sorrowful and apologetic and upset" ledge, again) but that OM hadcalled/texted W's bff a couple of times Sunday night asking "Is HJ's W okay... I'm worried about her", and that he had done the same after I confronted him way back in August. (Slimy SOB... he knew and knows darned well that my W was "okay"... he was just trying to insinuate himself back into situation and look like a "good guy.") PAying something like that would also be right in line with his MO... don't know how many times I saw him "pick up a tab" or buy something for someone (often coaches of the teams his kids played on) to try to curry favor with them.

IDK. Just can't see anyone else doing it. W and I don't broadcast our kids' troubles widely beyond family (the gossip culture around here is just sickening), and we have no family locally. W said she can think of two, maybe three "friends" of ours who know, none of whom we can see paying the ticket like that, and at least one of whom has enough legal knowledge to know that paying it would potentially screw things up legally. And both of those people know we were trying to get it dismissed for insurance reasons. So OM seems like a likely possibility.

Note that this was, however, before W made her "get lost" call and sent her "get lost" letter.