Thursday, February 23, 2012
Metro columnist Dan Casey: 1 loving nip + 0 fine = $74 for Roanoke dog owner
Many people, such as Mary Gray, are learning the extent to which legislators are imposing "fees" to avoid being seen as raising taxes.
Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
Mary Gray gets a kiss from her lab-shepherd mix Elvis. Gray’s son found Elvis by the side of the road nearly three years ago and brought him home.
Dan Casey is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
dan.casey
@roanoke.com
981-3423
Dan Casey
Recent columns
- Teachers give columnist an A for effort
- Food or films? It's not a hard choice
- Honesty doesn't work for Roanoke restaurateur
Read Dan's blog
At first I didn't believe Mary Gray when she called to tell me the story about how she ended up having to pay $74 in Roanoke General District Court after her own dog bit her in her home.
But I've checked out the story, and it's true, even if it is a little more involved than that. Read on.
Mary's dog, Elvis, is a happy, overweight mutt, about 3 years old. When I was over at Mary's house Friday, he was all wags and licks, no growls.
But Elvis gets a bit overexcited at times, especially when Mary's daughter's dogs are visiting. That was the case on Jan. 7. In his excitement, Elvis nipped Mary on her hand.
The bite left a single puncture wound near the base of her thumb. Mary washed it off and thought little about it.
When she woke up the next morning, it was obvious the wound was infected. It was tender and swollen.
"It was like two Krispy Kreme doughnuts on the base of my hand," Mary told me. Yuck.
So she went to one of those doc-in-a-box medical clinics that are springing up everywhere. The physician drained the wound, dressed it, and wrote Mary a prescription for antibiotics. She thought that was it.
But a couple of days later, on Jan. 10, Mary's phone rang. On the other end was Animal Control.
"The lady was very nice," Mary said. "She said we need to see the dog in your home." So Mary said, "Come on over."
The visit went fine. The officer ascertained that Elvis is no kind of vicious or dangerous cur. Mary showed her the documentation for his vaccinations.
But there was one hitch. Mary and her husband had neglected to renew Elvis' $5-a-year city dog license when it expired. That was an oversight.
"She said 'I'm going to have to cite you,'" Mary told me. So the officer wrote Mary a summons and told her Elvis would have to be quarantined for a week. That was no problem, because he's a house dog.
As the ticket advised, Mary called General District Court. There, a clerk said she could send in a check. Or she could renew Elvis's license, bring proof of that to court on her trial date. Most likely the judge would dismiss the charge, the clerk told her. That would save her $100.
So Mary's husband renewed the license, and Mary went to court on Feb. 7. She showed the dog license paperwork to the judge. Sure enough, he let her off. The court disposition reads, "complied with law" and lists no fine.
The judge told Mary to see the clerk on her way out. When Mary did, the clerk said, "That'll be $74."
Mary said, "But he dismissed it. Why do I have to pay?"
"You can go back and talk to the judge," the clerk advised. So Mary went back into the courtroom and asked the judge why she had to pay.
The judge was very brusque. "He said, 'Lady, you have to talk to your legislators,'" Mary said.
"I felt like that was ludicrous," Mary told me.
It turned out the $74 was for court costs, and those are set by the General Assembly. Apparently you have to pay those even when a judge lets you off with no fine. You also have to pay them even when you don't go to court. Then, they call them "processing fees."
One day soon, perhaps they'll assess court costs and fees to folks who are found "not guilty." And after that they'll get around to dinging people who aren't charged with anything.
That's called taxation, which these days is a dirty word. Used to be, that's the way the administration of justice was funded in this state.
But now we seem governed by a nickel-and-dime mentality in which every jaywalker and person who forgets to renew a dog license gets handed a bill, even if a judge has decided they deserve a pass on the fine.
It's a cheap way for lawmakers to pretend they're not raising taxes when they actually are.
If you don't like that, do what the judge told Mary to do.
Talk to your legislators.
