Thursday, December 10, 2009

Woodstock Court - December

Woodstock's new Administrative Adjudication Court (AAC) was open for business again this morning. Unfortunately, I missed most of the cases, because I was at the McHenry County Courthouse for an 8:30AM case.

I arrived a little after 10:00AM and was able to observe the conclusion of one case and then the final one to be heard, which involved a truancy at the high school. In that case, the young woman told the judge that truancy won't recur, because now she is home-schooled.

Will the cops pick her up again, if she is roaming the streets during "school hours", when she is supposed to be at home "in school"? Only time will tell. Judge David Eterno did praise her ability to think. Apparently, her case was heard before I arrived, and Judge Eterno thought she had argued her case well. Let's hope she doesn't out-smart herself and end up back in his court anytime soon.

The last case made the visit to the AAC entirely worthwhile. It also was a truancy case, and apparently the service of the Notice to Appear could not be confirmed. The City had mailed the Notice by First Class Mail, and the defendant hadn't shown up in court.

Didn't the City learn a lesson two months ago by using First Class Mail? There is no delivery receipt with First Class Mail, and so the prosecution cannot state with certainty that service was made or was completed.

But there was a bigger problem with this truancy ticket. Judge Eterno asked the City's prosecutor about the date of birth of the person charged with truancy from high school. Without repeating the month and day here, the year-of-birth was clearly printed on the citation as "1983". Hmmm, let's see; 2009 -1983 = 26. Judge Eterno wondered aloud about a high school truancy ticket having been issued to a 26-year-old person.

Most likely, the correct year of birth was 1993, but that's not how the ticket read. The City's prosecutor suggested that the case be dismissed and Judge Eterno agreed.

I spoke with Judge Eterno after court. He is really running the court the right way. He treats the people who appear before him with respect, and he'd like them to "get the message" and not come again to his court.

The AAC is convened on the second Thursday of each month at 9:30AM in the City Council chambers. It is an open court - drop in and see how it is run.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

TMB didn't like high school either. But I decided to get out of it in a different way: I kicked arse and took as many credits as totally possible, rarely missed class unless ill, stayed out of trouble (made up for that in my adult years) and I eventually graduated a year EARLY (3 instead of 4). Got a job, went to MCC, then on to NIU where I excelled at drinking and became the stellar citizen I am today. DOH!!!

Another Lawyer said...

If a person is home schooled, and is walking down the street at 10 a.m. on a "school day" ... how exactly is he/she truant?

Item #2: Do truancy charges lead to more students and parents opting for home schooling to avoid the whole "court case" saga?