Originally posted by RTStuka
Dred,
Are you sure it wasnt the Village of barryville in the town of Highland.
After reading this I dug out the letter they sent with the results of my plea
and nope its
Highland town court
in Barryville
Actually when I first tried to get the phone Number to the court I figured I'd call the Trooper station in the town of highland.
Since thats the only refrence to police and law enforcement agency phone # I could find figuring if anyone would know the number they would.
Nobody there had even HEARD of Barryville LOL
Was a rather interesting and amusing conversation that followed that had both the officer and myself laughing.
they eventually gave me another number to call
what followed after that was a 1 1/2 hour goosechase
( I have the phone records to prove it) with me ending up calling one law enforcement agency after another. each giving me another phone number of someone "who would know" Who in turn would give me the # to someone else.
Funny thing about it too was each place I talked to wanted to know the name of the officer. and each place I talked to claimed they never heard of him.
now this seemed to make sence right up to the point where I finally got the local Troopers and the local Sheriffs Dept for the Highland/Barryville I was looking for.
And even THEY claimed they never heard of the guy.
I remember joking with the Sheriffs officer that I was beginning to feel like i was in the twighlight zone. Which seemed to amuse her greatly though she did agree.
All in all I must say that NY law enforcement agencies are filled with very nice, patient, well spoken and friendly people with a pretty decnt sence of humor because we seemd to spend almost as much time laughing as we did trying to get me where I needed to be.
Unfortunately When I did get the number I gont an answering machine and I found out it was closed...for a WEEK. It did however politely ask me to leave a breif message along wiht my phone # and my call would be returned. ( I did, and they didnt) Now one would think that the local sherriffs dept would know the court would be closed for a week.... Well they didnt, least the lady on the phone didnt untill I called her back, informed her of that little tibit and to see if there was a local prosecuter I could call instead. (there isnt)
All this because I wanted to find out the right mailing address and how they work the fines.
So my next step was to try to call a local lawyer.
Figgering if ANYONE would know what to do they would.
Well that led to another hour of almost the exact same fiasco described above. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY outside of barryville had ever heard of it. they all had to look it up on a map to find it. Most were too far for them for it to be worth their while. Each gave me the phone # of another. Finally I found 1 who again after he managed to find it on a map (it was a half hour ride right up the road from him for Crissakes) Said the typical fines could range to a Max of $200 plus a mandatory surcharge and it was kinda out of his way but he could handle it for $500.
So I asked him "Think we can win"
Him:: "I dont know" (didnt sound very confident to me)
Me: "so your telling me that for $500 you can go up there and take care of it but you dont know if we will win and if we dont win it will cost me up to a $200 fine +
AND $500 for you?"
Him:: "Yes thats about the size of it"
Me:: "Well hell I can loose $200+ all by myself I dont need to pay you an extra $500 for that"
Him::"Well you can represent yourself, what you do is go to court and see if the officer is willing to reduce the charge if you are willing to plea guilty to a lesser charge"
Me:: "you mean cop a plea? Ok yea I can do that but I really didnt wanna drive all the way back up there cause it would cost me almost as much in lost time as it would to pay you"
Him:: well why dont you try this. I dont know why I didnt think of this before. Im going to give you the number for the Bar association. You call them and they will give you 3 #'s of people you can call in that area."
Me:: ok COOL! thanks"
So I call the Bar.
the phone picks up and I hear
"Hello, you have reached Ny state Bar association We are closed today........"
(insert twighlight zone theme music here)
True story
