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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Brush with the law

My addiction to the Lions is responsible for the one blemish on my otherwise clean criminal record. It's true.

I was issued a ticket for trying to sell extra pre-season seats to an undercover cop. They actually had their vice squad out in force posing as people looking for tickets.

i offered two of them for 20 bucks, because I honestly could not give them away. My sister in law was supposed to go with us, but backed out a few hours before the game. I then literally called every number in my phone, and no one was interested in free tickets. (Take a note, NFL...no one wants these damn games!!!)

This horrible city decided that it was more important to bust me for the evil crime of getting a few bucks back after getting bent over a table by the Lions for making me pay full price, and deployed their thugs on me.

I was briefly detained, my tickets confiscated (I still had 2) and threatened with arrest when I refused to sign their POS ticket. The lousy excuse for a cop told me it would be a cheap ticket...just plead guilty and pay $100.

Screw them, so i fought it. I had to go downtown 4 times, 3 for no reason whatsover, and try to fight this thing. After listening to the prosecuting attorney, as well as the public defender (whom I didn't ask their opinion) tell me that even if we got into the courtroom that day, they've already decided that I was guilty.

They actually zoned the city to make the Ford Field city block extend all the way out to Madison Ave. Check a map, that's damn near a quarter mile away.

The law clearly stated that any resale on the same city block as the venue is punishable by 6 months in jail and a $500 fine.

I backed out...I was in enough trouble for missing 4 days of work, let alone facing 6 months in the clink. I paid my $100 and bid this sorry excuse for a justice system goodbye.

PS - I later got involved in a class action lawsuit against the City of Detroit, and won a multi-million dollar judgement. The city is of course dragging their feet, but my share of that should be over a grand!!! (if the city ever pays up)

Another interesting postscript - I later found out that this entire course of events got me a promotion at work. Apparently, my bosses thought I was lying when I showed up in a suit several days over a few months. They didn't believe me that i was at court and thought I was at job interviews. They offered me a large promotion to keep me. Ha!

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