(08-18-2019 08:15 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote: (08-18-2019 07:36 PM)JRsec Wrote: (08-18-2019 07:15 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote: (08-18-2019 04:48 PM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: A fine this large for a retired cop is ridiculous. It's setting him up for debtors' prison.
The judge was sending a message. He may as well have made it a bagillion dollars, since it will never be paid anyways. I know a lot of people (law abiding citizens but with low impulse control and low education) who would have interpreted this message the same way as Updike. Their response would be "f-you, judge" and ignored the order.
Yes, he probably should have Filed a Motion. But who gets to rule on that motion?
And if you're facing $800,000 in fines, what lawyer will file the paperwork for you?
It's on Updike to know not to do what he did in the first place. Since he flunked that choice, it's on him to seek legal remedies within the system. He's paid less than $1,000 per year since 2013. If you have an income issue, go back to court instead of breaking a court order and getting yourself in a deeper hole. What did he think? His failure to pay was going to go unnoticed until he died? Man up and face the consequences.
I'd be willing to waive the damages if he would agree to be a human test subject for Roundup's effects upon the human body.
Yep. Or, he has to work off the fine doing manual labor at an oak tree farm operated by Auburn University. The Auburn logo is in full view everywhere he goes...
See, that's just it. Any of those punishments would be understandable. Community service, jail time, human science experiment (ok that one's a bit extreme even for me...)
But the judge didn't give those as punishment. Instead, he made it about money. $800,000 is easy for a wealthy person to pay off and doable (although somewhat painful) for an upper-middle income person to pay off. But for a working class person it's impossible.
It's the same thing with traffic fines. A $200 traffic ticket is nothing to me. Has no impact at all. For the guy doing my drywall, a $200 traffic ticket is the difference between his 2 kids being able to play little league this year. And there's thousands of people in jail right now because they literally had to choose between a traffic ticket or paying the electric bill.
By making it about money, the judge set it up so that the guy would never be able to pay off his debt to society.
And maybe that's the point: the judge meant this as an insult. If Updike had $5 million in a retirement account, would the judge have given the same punishment?
But Updyke's response is 100% predictable. Just ignore it, and make the court come after you. He's 71, he's not exactly living for tomorrow. It's taken them 8 years to get around to this and with appeals he can probably drag it out another 5. By then the jailer isn't going to prioritize a nonviolent 76 year old who's not a repeat offender.