Houston mayor, police officer miss court date

It was a minor traffic violation, unless you talk to Ron Johnson.

Sometime in January, Johnson was pulled over by an unmarked car with police lights flashing. He allegedly passed on a double-yellow line marking.

To his surprise, the ticketing “officer” was none other than Roger Purcell, mayor of Houston, in his BMW.

Johnson took umbrage at the fact that the mayor, not a police officer, had pulled him over. So Johnson, apparently being Johnson, decided to fight the ticket and got plenty of news coverage in the mean time.

The first court date was postponed to another date.

And that’s where the story ended.

Johnson, hands full of paperwork was girding for a fight. He and four other alleged offenders were in District Court with tickets issued in Houston.

The mayor didn’t show, nor did the police officer.

With nobody there from the accusing side, the judge threw all of them out. Johnson was glad to get the $160 ticket tossed, but he wanted a judge to decide if the mayor, who is not a certified law enforcement officer, has the right to write tickets. He didn’t find out. And neither did anyone else.

For their part, the mayor and the officer, said they were not notified of the change of date. Some how Johnson and the others made it.

It’s not known what the other drivers were ticketed with, but if they all had fines facing them similar to Johnson, the total would’ve been about $800.

Figuring they all would have lost, because few traffic scofflaws win in court, that’s eight C-notes Houston didn’t collect. Doesn’t sound like much, but Purcell frequently says Houston is too poor for this or too poor for that. Maybe driving all the way to Palmer for $800 didn’t make fiscal sense to him.

Or maybe that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the tickets issued that go unchallenged by people unlike the Johnson Five. Maybe that’s the case for a lot of money generated by police departments. Maybe they’ve learned that many people are just too busy or feel they can’t win, so they just mail the ticket in with a check.

The Johnson Five said to heck with it and went to court and they all walked away with their bank accounts intact. Thanks to law enforcement no-shows.

Maybe that’s a lesson to all you speeders, lane violators and nefarious non-seatbelt-wearing ne’er-do-wells. The Man won’t show.

But don’t bet your points on it.