Note to Ticket Fixers: Check the Number Twice, Dial Once
"Dismiss this case," read the handwritten note from Joann Reed, a records clerk at the St. Clair County, Illinois, Sheriff's Department. "The guy is the son of one of our deputies." The note accompanied a copy of a speeding ticket issued by police in Centreville. Unfortunately for Reed, she accidentally faxed it to the Belleville News-Democrat instead of the intended recipient, Centreville Village Attorney Carmen Durso, who in any event does not have the power to dismiss cases involving violations of state law. "I get calls like these all the time," Durso told the News-Democrat. "I don't think it's unusual or strange." Sheriff Mearl Justus does, or at least he's pretending that he does. "I'll look at the whole thing," Justus assured the paper. "I'll take some action."
I hope that Justus, in addition to investigating Reed's inept attempt at ticket fixing, can clear up the mystery of how you mistakenly fax such a note to the local newspaper instead of the village attorney's office. Did Reed have them both on speed dial, right next to each other? Do the fax numbers differ by just one transposed digit? Or did Reed's guilt drive her to self-sabotage?
[Thanks to Mark Sletten for the tip.]
