EBONY vs City of Chicago, Day 1

Even with the delay of officially posting the story of the "incident", word spread fast. Yesterday was my turn to represent myself in day 1 of 2 (hopefully only 2) of EBONY vs the City of Chicago. I didn't really know what to expect going in to this. I had the legal team of Holland & Holland to consult in the leading weeks to the hearing, along with many google searches for any helpful tips in our case. Also, if I had a dollar for every time someone recommended I plead that I have uromysitisis, I'd be able to buy the new $7.99 combo at Sonic. I show up to the hearing 45 minutes early as I took a half-day at work not knowing how long this would last. I check in to court room 101 and walk in to see the honorable Judge Richard Byrne behind the desk. The room is empty and he looks pretty bored. He tells me to check in with the clerk in the side room. The clerk looks over my case and gives me two options: either except a plea, or see the judge and let it be up to him. The plea bargain came with two options. Option one was to pay $100 right now and I'm on my home. Option two was to participate in one day of community service. I asked what the community service consisted of as I feel repaying my debt to society would be a noble cause. He looks confused and says, "no one has ever accepted the community service option, let me look it up." In the end it consisted of picking up trash at a southside park from 7am to 3pm on a weekday. I told him I accepted the payment of $100. I left the clerks office and told the judge my decision. Within 3 minutes of entering court I was on my way home. To top it off, I was allowed to pay my fine with a credit card. So at least I get an extra 100 miles on American Airlines out of this, plus it was easy handing over my American Express knowing that they take the biggest cut out of all major credit cards from the merchant. All-in-all, I'd say this was a victory. I read horror stories of fines being between $200-500 bucks, and even worse stories of things that get put on your criminal record. To top it off, I killed 60 minutes at Macy's beforehand and took advantage of their 1 day 60% off sale and cleaned house with some X-Mas shopping which saved me $160. EBONY 1, City of Chicago 0.