Final thoughts on arrest and legal situation

 

• I was wrong. I did fail to pay my tabs. I'm not sure how that oversight occurred but it did.
• I'm glad that the Plymouth police stopped me! I really mean this.
• My saying - and I did say this when asked - "I drive the vehicle about once a week" was perceived to be some sort of admission that because I only drove it once a week that somehow I thought it was OK to not pay my tabs.
• Unfortunately my saying "[it] was just an oversight on my part" was ignored.
• The charge of "intent to evade taxes" was an egregious completely unsupported and unprovable charge. (I proved this by demonstrating that I have consistently paid my taxes and that the really expensive taxes I gladly pay. Take for example my property taxes which may be paid biannually (I believe they are due in May and October). The last two years (since have paid my mortgage off and I manage my own escrow and pay the taxes directly instead of having the mortgage company pay the taxes from escrow), I have paid my entire annual property tax amount on the first day I was able to pay them on the Hennepin Co tax site. This is not the action of a man who intends to evade taxes. Additionally one can easily reduce taxes legally. I do not invest in the Nuveen Minnesota Intermediate Municipal Bond Fund but as an investor I could easily invest in this fund and avoid $ 48 of Minnesota state taxes. I'm smart enough to know how to legally avoid $ 48 of state taxes. I'm not stupid enough to think I could evade taxes by not paying license plate tabs on a 10 year old truck! Intent to evade taxes ... ridiculous!
• About the Plymouth police ... I appreciate you ... I really do. Thank you for serving our community. But was it really necessary to handcuff me and bring me in for this! I think not! You could have done better.
• My own out of pocket was a $ 300 fine, $ 78 in court costs, and $ 100 to get my truck of of impound.
• But the city and state wasted resource as well. How much did it cost you?
• I think that giving me a ticket for $ 300 would have saved me time and money and would have been a better use of state resources!
• Finally I thank Steve Goldfarb - the attorney who represented me! I would never go to court without professional representation. The stakes are too high and the system is stacked against the individual. This man worked aggressively for me!

 Comment: For all posts on this subject click here (scroll back to the 12/30/2011 post for the first)