Mr. Simpson, Are You Driving, Asked The Judge?

army judge

Super Moderator
Jurisdiction
Michigan
Four years from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom mishaps are still playing out in courtrooms: This time, a defendant virtually attended a hearing about his suspended license — from behind the wheel of a car.

The video begins with Judge Cedric Simpson waiting for Corey Harris, the defendant, to join the hearing in Ann Arbor, Mich. Moments later, Harris joins the call. "Hello," he says, while apparently steering, wearing sunglasses and a seat belt.


"Mr. Harris, are you driving?" Simpson asked. "I'm pulling into my doctor's office, actually," Harris said. "So just give me one second, I'm parking right now."

Harris did not say why he was visiting the doctor. The Washington Post was unable to contact Harris's legal representative.

The hearing, which took place in Washtenaw County's 14A District Court on May 15, is the latest of many bizarre scenes that have unfolded in courtrooms since the onset of the pandemic, from a doctor joining a hearing from an operating room to an attorney accidentally showing up with a cat filter. Washtenaw County announced last year that it was discontinuing live-streaming dockets and that the use of Zoom would remain at the judge's discretion.

The perplexed judge tilts his head and waits several seconds for the defendant to park. Placing his head in his hand, he asks Harris: "Are you stationary?"

"I'm pulling in right now at this second," Harris says.

After Harris appeared to park his vehicle, the judge tried to make sense of the situation.


"He was just driving and he doesn't have a license," Simpson said. After a lingering silence, Harris can be seen opening and closing his mouth at least twice before saying, "Um."

"I'm looking at his records. He doesn't have a license," Simpson said. "He's suspended, and he's just driving."

"That is correct, your honor," Harris's attorney, Washtenaw County Assistant Public Defender Natalie Pate, says from the courtroom.

"I don't even know why he would do that," Simpson said, before revoking Harris's bond and ordering him to turn himself into the Washtenaw County jail by 6 p.m. that day.

"Oh, my God," Harris sighs, throwing his head back in the driver's seat.

Footage of the hearing soon spread on social media, where users declared the Zoom hearing the "funniest" video they had seen in a while, as others expressed sympathy for the public defender who had tried during the hearing to have the case adjourned. Fox 2 reported that Harris's attorney said she "strives to live in a world where people are not jailed for nonviolent offenses," without commenting further.


This is not the first time a Zoom court hearing has gone viral.

In March 2021, a virtual domestic violence case made headlines when the defendant appeared on a Zoom hearing from inside the apartment of his alleged victim, prompting officials to postpone the hearing as the prosecutor voiced concerns for the victim's safety, and highlighting the dangers that faced domestic violence victims when they had to stay at home during the pandemic.

In February 2021, a California doctor attended his Zoom court hearing to contest a traffic violation while performing surgery on a patient. "I'm in an operating room right now," he said while wearing scrubs, gloves, a mask and surgical cap. The judge immediately halted the trial, citing the welfare of the patient.

But there have also been lighter moments.

That same month, CBS 13 reported that during a virtual hearing in Sacramento, a defendant logged on while getting his hair cut at a barber shop. "You know what, you're going to have to come back on a different day when I have your full attention," the judge said.


That month, a Texas attorney also accidentally signed into a hearing using a Zoom filter that made him take on the appearance of a kitten. "I'm not a cat," he told the courtroom as the feline mouthed what he was saying.

The lawyer, Rod Ponton, later told The Post he was happy to give people an opportunity "to laugh at my cat moment at my expense. … We've had a stressful year."

 
The article with video was posted down the street yesterday...I freaking love Judge Simpson! I have seen many of his courtroom cases...he is fair but no nonsense. The look on Harris's face was priceless... The epitome of "Oh Sh**...I messed up!"

The video is about 3 or 4 minutes...well worth the time to watch.

 
It always amazes me how clueless some people are. How did that guy think the hearing would go when the judge sees him driving when the judge knows his license is suspended? SMH.

I saw a video on the show Cops awhile back where the police asked the driver where his weed was. He denied having any despite the smell of weed from the car. Then the cop asks the guy "So what's this then?" as he reaches behind the drivers ear and pulls off the joint that he had there. His reaction, of course, was "Oh sh*t". Naturally the guy was high at the time, so he got arrested both for illegal possesion of the weed and for a drug DUI too.

Kind of makes me wonder how we were able to avoid extinction ourselves with so many Darwin award candidates out there.
 
Kind of makes me wonder how we were able to avoid extinction ourselves with so many Darwin award candidates out there.

"Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species." Idiocracy 2006


Trust me, it's worth the 4 bucks to watch it.
 
The entire scene is worth watching. I didn't know about the yarn site before, but I've bookmarked it now. It looks like a great place to get shorts of just about anything.
 
Kind of makes me wonder how we were able to avoid extinction ourselves with so many Darwin award candidates out there.

The guy spent 2 days in jail and gave an interview to a tv station. Turns out he didn't know that his license was suspended. His license was suspended like 10 years ago for non-payment of child support but 2 years ago, a Judge lifted the suspension. The problem was that the order lifting the suspension was never entered into the database.

Why was the driver in a viral video's license still suspended 2 years after a judge ordered it lifted?
 
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