Photo Enforcement P7: 2nd Motion
It was suggested that I take action and file a complaint against the court.  After a couple of hours of phone calls, I discovered that complaints are NOT filed against the court, they are filed against the judge.  I ended up calling court services, and then the clerk of the superior court and then the Payson and Globe courts and ended up speaking with the office of the District 1 Supervisor.  I can’t believe that there was this much run around just to say, “Hey, I don’t think the courts are treating me justly.”So after all of this communication, I started to feel more and more frustrated about the situation.  When I spoke to someone in Payson and pointed out the clerical error of the date and time for my new trial, they were very short with me.  They didn’t seem to think that a “snow day” was a just cause to have my case dismissed.  So I grabbed the forms from the Commission of Judicial Conduct and filed an official complaint.  I thought it was interesting in the form where it said, “List the names of any attorneys who appeared in the case:” and then is said, “List the names, addresses and telephone numbers of any witnesses who observed the judge’s conduct:”.  I wrote in that there were no witnesses because the judge did not appear.  I also added an amendment to my testimony stating that I wanted to complain against the court and not specifically against Judge Dorothy Little.I sent off my complaint with a copy of my new Motion to Dismiss, my old Motion to Dismiss, and the letter that I received from the court.  I then sent a copy of the new Motion to Dismiss, my old Motion to Dismiss, and the letter to the court, the Star Valley Town Attorney, and the District 1 Supervisor.  So here’s the new Motion.
FACTS
Defendant Spencer Brinkerhoff was summoned and ordered to appear in the Star Valley Magistrate Court on December 30th, 2010 between the 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on a complaint charge of the offense of: Speed Greater Than Reasonable and Prudent. The Defendant was warned that a failure to appear as directed may result in a default judgment against him, a civil sanction imposed, and resulting in a suspension of his driver’s license. The Defendant appeared at the court house on the assigned date and time, checked in with the court secretary, and waited. The Plaintiff failed to appear in court and was unresponsive to phone contacts. After the Plaintiff failed to appear in court, the Defendant was compelled to issue a Motion to Dismiss (see attached document) on the 10th of January. The court responded with the attached document dated Jan. 14, 2011 stating that the court had received a “…not guilty plea…” from the defendant and set a trial date for “…2-25-11 @ 2-25-11…”.
ARGUMENT
The Plaintiff failed to appear in court on the assigned date and time and failed to present witnesses against the Defendant. If the Defendant was summoned and ordered to appear with a warning of imposed sanctions, then the Plaintiff should be held to the same standards. There was no attempt made to inform the Defendant of any change in the summon to appear.Also, the issued court response to the Motion to Dismiss contained language inconsistent with the Defendant’s motion. Nowhere in the Motion to Dismiss did the Defendant enter a plea of “not guilty”. The Civil Complaint received by the Defendant specifies that the Defendant may make a declaration of “not responsible”. It is the Defendants understanding that the phrase “not guilty” is reserved for use in criminal cases. In addition to this inconsistent language use, the received document included an clerical error concerning the time for the court appearance. Thereby placing a undo burden upon the Defendant to correct the court supervisor’s mistake and creating an lack of confidence in the court.
CONCLUSION
For the Plaintiff’s failure to appear in court against the Defendant, and for the Plaintiff’s failure to acknowledge the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, the Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss should be granted.
Dated this 25th day of January, 2011
 Now that I’ve sent this off, I’m thinking that I should have mentioned that they entered a plea in my behalf without my consent.  I wonder what the legal terminology for that is?
by 
