wow, what a week it has been and it's only Wednesday!
let me start this blog by saying that this blog has no other intention except to put my thoughts down. there is no health,lets get exercising making good food choices information here. This is me, Macara and my thoughts on life in blog. There are no editors making grammatical corrections for me, changing sentence structure. There are going to be run on sentences and to be completely honest,it is exactly how I wish it to be. For those that know me, they know how I speak, my personality, my energy. It is my intention to bring the essence of my spirit to the pages of this blog.
With that said, lets get down to business , the topic of the blog....the story of Mitchell Scott Brachmann and his first ticket...
Oh man.
Let me go back for a moment to remind readers of our basic story.
Steve and I are both widowed. We have known each other since 7th grade. We graduated high school together way back in 1987. We went our separate ways after graduation... we are together not by chance, the ones we loved brought us together. our story is uniquely ours and a blog for another day. Lets just say, I never in a million years would have thought that I would be widowed at 41 and living back in CA ,with SR and our beautiful crazy life.
I trusted the process.
Back to Mitchell.
Summer of 2014
Mitchell was going into 9th grade and really wanted to take a specific AP class, Human Geography. I learned to take this AP class in the fall, he had to go to summer school, to take a pre-requisite course for 3 weeks. Fine, I thought.... Then I was informed that summer school is not free!I thought! The class would cost,(not going to be accurate on this) between $300-400 for 3 weeks (!?!) The cost took me by surprise, but after a few heart to heart conversations, I realized how much he wanted to take this class,so summer school was a go.
The deal we made was this.... he would have to ride his(new) bike to and from school. He needed to show increased responsibility. At the time we were living in Steve's old house which was close to Calabassas High School, where the district had scheduled summer school. He was willing. 3 weeks in total. easy he thought....
I will say this, I was apprehensive about him riding his bike on the busy streets of Woodland Hills and Calabassas. This was definitely not Northfield MN! Lots of traffic, busy streets...I drove him the route which we felt was safest. I explained which side of the street to bike and the crosswalks to use etc.
I was uncomfortable thinking of him biking to school,to say the least. I think any parent with their first born feels these same things.You have to allow their growth, as uncomfortable as it may be. So I said a quiet prayer as I watched him head out the door the first day. I waited anxiously for him to bike up the driveway and tell me about his day.
3 weeks.....
In the 3 weeks, he got 7 flat tires, 3 in one day. No joke. I still don't know exactly how that one happened. I believe Steve and I were out of town and my mom was watching the boys. He was pretty flustered as anyone would have been. I think he ended up watching some you tube videos on how to change a tire since my mom wasn't too much help!
The last day of school arrived July 24,2014.. Final day....
I receive a text... a picture of a ticket... huh?
He goes on to tell me the story.. my mom and I laughed. A lot...
He did what he had done for the prior 3 weeks, crossed at the crosswalks went onto campus..
the last day, a police officer on a moped was sitting in a driveway of a home next to the school. Pulled him over...
his offense?
riding his bicycle against traffic for approximately 50 feet in the bike lane...
He had not brought his ID with him on the last day. Mitchell was truthful and gave the officer all of his information, was issued the ticket and was late to his final. The little boys couldn't believe he actually told the officer his true name,age,address etc. It was quite funny to listen to the banter between them. As a parent I was proud that he told the truth.
To say it flustered him was an understatement.
You see in our old home town in MN, police officers would stop kids for wearing their helmets and give them Dairy Queen or Culvers coupons as a reward!
Mitchell honestly thought he was being punked. He couldn't believe that it was happening and the officer was serious about the violation!
I told him I was not upset with him and we would handle the issue. It was a great topic of conversation for the rest of the summer..Nobody we spoke to could believe an actual ticket was issued!
We all agreed that it was an awfully slow crime day in Calabassas....
As summer came to a close, Mitchell and I went to the courthouse to wrap the looming ticket issue up with a big bow. Pay the fine and call it lesson learned....
$470 fine...
the woman behind the counter was mortified at the violation and that the officer actually wrote the ticket! Quietly, she gave us words of advice told us what court room to ask for and to go to court.
So we did, 1st court date April 16,2015!
Yes, that is correct...
We get back from Spring Break in Hawaii and have court that week.
He wanted to tell the judge his side of the story.
So we sat in a courtroom with 270 other people. It was traffic court. It was straight from a Key and Peele substitute teacher skit with roll call
in-case you havent seen....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd7FixvoKBw
With the ethnic diversity of traffic court, listening the deputy attempt pronouncing challenging names made me smile.
What I was not expecting in traffic court was to have a pre-recorded audio tape (imagine in the airplane) with instructions played...
basically,
The judge will hear you plea,
1)guilty
2)not guilty
3)no contest
Have your ducks in a row, be ready.... time is valuable..
Holy crap, I looked at Mitchell and thought, well, so much for telling your story.
You are guilty, yes, but you didn't know the law!!! I was not feeling like a very good mom at that moment, I lacked solid advice. I kept thinking oh shit, stay calm...
He was called up in the first group, third called to the stand.
She read his charges aloud, recognized what she had read, took off her glasses looked him in the eyes and asked how he was. He was scared. My heart was pounding out of my chest, I kept intentionally taking long exhales to stay calm for outward appearances.
When I say that the entire courtroom sighed at the reading of his charges that is not an exaggeration....you could hear people say, things like I cant believe he got a ticket for that!
The judge said, "Well I know I feel safer seeing what cars are coming toward me while I ride my bike, but I know the law"....He replied, "I do too, I didn't know the law your honor"
He pled with tears in his eyes, no contest...
20 hours of community service.!?!
We were escorted to the side door to fill out paperwork. He sat there quietly in the corner, I could see he was going to lose it, 20 hours of community service for this? then the flood gates opened...pent up emotions all released....
I did my best to calm him, reassure him, hold him, allow him his journey, but try to get him to listen...
The wonderful ladies behind the counter got out their white out rollers and started telling him he was able to change his plea and not to worry about any of this, it was not going to be a permanent mark on his record, he was a minor. He finally heard them...
He decided to change his plea,but we had to wait until all 270 people had been called to the stand.In total we waited 4 hours. Thankfully, Mitchell's anxiety had time to subside, as he was able to witness a few people who were standing before the judge clearly not telling the full truth. He was able to watch the process from the third party perspective and gain some understanding of the process...
We were the only ones left in the court room... finally our turn..
The judge called him back up. She said, "Well I see Mr. Brachmann that you haven't seen me enough today and you want to change your plea."
The judge took her time explaining to him all the different scenarios so he understood the law and his options. He stood there and said, "I simply want to tell you my side of the story your honor. " My heart melted.
He pled no contest... trial set, Aug 10,2015.
Fast forward...
Has it been in the back of our minds he was going to court? of course. Did the looming date create uneasy feelings? Oh yeah it did... what was the worst thing that could happen? We discussed. The officer would show up and each would tell the judge their side.(I did have him take an online bicycle safety course to show that he was taking responsibility for his actions...) Worst case scenario, he would get 20 hours of community service and hopefully he could have it count for school volunteer hours as well. He was ready for whatever was going to happen.
We waited patiently outside the same courtroom. Several police officers began arriving... I would ask him, do any look familiar? He couldn't remember.
The courtroom's energy was different this time.... All were here for trial....
Officers were designated to one side of the room, civilians the other... we sat and waited patiently....
No pre-recorded directions this time....
We continued to sit with some anxiety not knowing if the officer was going to show.
His name was called for check in.
After 30 minutes, the same Judge we had in April called his name....
She said ,"Your officer did not arrive, your case is DISMISSED!!!"
For those of you who follow BLISS with Mac, my #daily3 pictures of appreciation on FB or Instagram , I posted these for Aug 10.. I took them walking out of the courtroom...
Although more than 3 pictures for the day, I had to capture me taking some much needed moments of quiet once we returned home...
Here is the original ticket, barely readable... although I thought it would be fun to frame, I think it will find it's place in a memory box to be looked at many years from now, only a distant memory.
I want to thank the officer for not showing up. Although a small part of me wanted to see the man who actually had given a 13 year old a ticket for this offense instead of a warning... At the end of the day, I remind myself, it was exactly as it was supposed to be.
We were outside our comfort zone, there was growth, many lessons learned and maturity gained from July 24,2014 to Aug 10,2015.
Being a mom is the most challenging jobs I have been given. It also is the most rewarding.
Life is about the journey.... embrace the moments...
All the best,
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