Civic-gate: Part II

The thing that really perplexed me about this whole situation was Officer X's "You're a liar" accusation. What was it that led him to believe that I was lying?

The day after the incident, I called the Chief of Police and was able to get more information. Apparently, the scrape on my car's body was not parallel with the scrape on my wheel and hub cap, leading the officer to believe that the tire had rotated and the car had been moved. Therefore, my story about the car not moving at all since being hit made no sense. Very well. However, I had driven to work in the dark that morning and my car was parked on the street, scrape side out, the night before. It is totally feasible that I would have missed the scrape. However, Officer X's investigation did not get that far.

Fast forward one week. Through a family friend, I got a list of three lawyers who may be able to help me. The first one I called was my guy. When I told him my story and the name of the officer involved he told me that he was this man's archnemesis. In his words, "If Officer X is Lex Luther, I'm Superman."

Once the officer got word that I had a lawyer, he communicated that he would be willing to drop the charges if I passed a polygraph. The proposition was tempting. I was three months away from our wedding and a move to New York. The sooner and cheaper I could get out of this mess, the better. However, my lawyer advised against this. The polygraph was sort of a sham because its results did not pertain to the actual charge (Resisting a Police Officer), and they are not even admissable in court. It was really to serve the officer's interests. If I passed, I would be out of his hair. If I failed, he would feel justified in his charge and the way he treated me. In the end, I decided against the polygraph. My lawyer and I went forward with pursuing a trial by jury.

The day of the pretrial hearing dawned sunny and bright. My mom came to town for support and my sister came to the courthouse, since it was close to the campus where she attended college. We all sat in the back of the courtroom, waiting for the gavel to come down, so to speak. When my case came up, the judge got right down to business in setting jury selection...for the day of our wedding. The next day he suggested was in the middle of our honeymoon. My lawyer was insistent that this was not acceptable. The judge became impatient and called both my lawyer and the prosecuting attorney to the bench. After some heated conversation, both lawyers left the bench. As the prosecutor left the courtroom, my lawyer told me to go out to the lobby and wait. His parting words were, "I think we've got 'em."

To Be Continued...