Incarceration of Mr. Smith: Some sympathy, but the majority cast thumbs-down ballots

Recently I quoted here from a letter written by Freda Smith, a schoolteacher, complaining that her husband was held in jail three days and taken to court in chains because he failed to respond to a minor traffic citation.

Smith had been cited by a Torrance police officer for faulty backup lights. Mrs. Smith got two postponements of his court appearance, but before the second date the car, an old $350 clunker, “gave up the ghost, absolutely and irrevocably.”

Though Mrs. Smith admitted that they knew they should let the court know, they didn’t, considering the ticket now irrelevant. A notice came that a warrant had been issued, with bail at $171. For seven months they ignored it. Then Smith was arrested, and his ordeal, and hers, began. She sat all day in court with her small child while her husband was led in and out in chains, unable to speak to her.

Mrs. Smith’s letter was written in fury; it was dramatic and touching; but except to state that she wrote well, I made no judgment of her case.

Many readers have written to express either sympathy or disdain for the Smiths, with the ratio being about four to one against them.

Robert J. Kelly, editor of the Pasadena Journal of Business, writes of a similar case in which a friend was handcuffed, taken to jail, searched, fingerprinted and held two days on an unpaid speeding ticket.

He says: “We truly are living in a strange world in which rapists, bank robbers and drug dealers roam our streets while others are clapped into a cell for minor traffic violations.”

In a letter addressed to Mrs. Smith, Marvin Maltz of North Hollywood said, “You have my total and complete sympathy. There is a cliche, ‘You can’t fight city hall.’ In L. A. County there is no city hall. There is only a mindless, bureaucratic, computer-oriented collection of humanoids who seem to follow whatever orders they are given in lock-step fashion. . . .”

Most, however, felt that Smith got what he deserved.

Writes A. M. Foster of North Hollywood: “Could Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s problem have been readily solved had they readily bit the bullet, as the rest of us do, and paid for breaking the law?”

“Just what did the husband and wife expect after the husband defaulted on his written promise to appear in court?” asks Wallace F. Hunt of Downey. “Surprise, surprise, he was arrested. . . . With two incomes the plea of poverty rings hollow. . . . The victims are the taxpayers who are taxed to apprehend such scofflaws. . . .”

“I have no sympathy at all for Freda Smith,” writes Susan Humphrey of Santa Barbara. “The Smiths may have made a series of poor choices, but choices they were. . . . I don’t think their ‘trials’ leave any room whatever to question the nature of justice. Justice was done. . . .”

“In this case,” writes Robert Mills of Cypress, “the family should probably have notified the proper authorities that the broken-down car had been scrapped and requested information about how to resolve the citation. By that time the defective wiring was certainly irrelevant , but the court didn’t know that. . . .”

Having given full play to Mrs. Smith’s emotional story, I feel obliged to give some space to an answer from Sandra Thompson, presiding judge of the South Bay Municipal Court.

Judge Thompson summarizes the story, noting that Smith received notice of a warrant with bail fixed at the standard $171, “giving him the opportunity to appear in court to explain his failure to appear or simply pay the indicated bail and forfeit it without an appearance.”

Judge Thompson notes that Smith did not respond. Instead, he “avoided Torrance,” as his wife admitted, for seven months. Result: Arrest, jail, trauma.

Judge Thompson further observes:

“ ‘Fix-it’ tickets, while routinely disposed of by dismissal in court, are non-trivial matters involving traffic safety. . . .

“Failure to appear on a duly signed promise to appear is a more serious offense than the underlying traffic citation. This violation is a separate vehicle code section and carries a potential six-month jail sentence as well as a $1,000 fine. . . .

“There is a reason: Across the state people are ignoring traffic citations on a wholesale basis. This occurs on cases ranging from driving under the influence to speeding and to ‘fix-it’ tickets like Mr. Smith’s. . . . The effect on a generally responsible community at large is a massive loss in public safety, revenue, and confidence in the system’s ability to do anything in response.

“The Smiths’ actual, frustrating appearance in court was, unfortunately, endemic. Our courts and jails are bursting at the seams. . . .” (Torrance should have 11 judges; it has seven.)

“Mrs. Smith had a great deal to say about her husband’s treatment as a metaphor for injustice. I see the Smiths’ plight as a metaphor for, at worst, personal irresponsibility and, at best, for a lack of confidence in our courts.

“It is unfortunate that the Smiths suffered the consequences that they did; however, every day in our courts thousands of citizens obey laws, court orders and promises to appear, often at considerable financial and personal cost.

“Our system is such that it succeeds or fails based on individual willingness to accept responsibility for individual actions. No one will find justice, in Los Angeles County, or anywhere else, unless they are willing to assume that responsibility.”

Mrs. Smith said she and her husband couldn’t wait to get out of Los Angeles.

I have an idea that, wherever they go, they will not ignore any more traffic tickets.

We’d best not, either.