No Mercy for Speeder, 93, in Victorville

This is the saga of 93-year-old Ada Beck, who is spending this holiday season pondering her punishment for a speeding ticket: 20 hours of court-ordered community service.

We will tell the story mostly in her own words. She says we can call her Becky. Her friends do, so we can too.

The folks at the Victorville Municipal Court confirm her tale; she appeared in traffic court there on Tuesday, before Commissioner Patrick Singer.

And she’ll work off her moving violation, appropriately enough, at Meals on Wheels.

Becky was nailed in November for speeding along a winding desert road leading from her home in Hesperia to Victorville. She remembers it well, being sandwiched between a white pickup truck and a Jeep, everyone traveling the same speed.

Becky, a widow for 38 years, was in her 1985 Oldsmobile Delta Royal.

“We passed this little motorsickle officer along the side of the road. Next thing I know, he’s flashing his lights at us so we all pulled over,” says Becky. “The first car, he takes off. He’s got his smarts working. So it’s just me and the Jeep. The little motorsickle officer walked up to me first and I said, ‘What’s the problem, honey?’

“He said, ‘Lady, you’re going to get in trouble calling everybody honey,’ and I said, ‘Well, honey, I don’t have any children left so I call everyone honey.’ ”

The officer said Becky was traveling 62 in a 45-mph zone. “I said, ‘Honey, I don’t go that fast, any time.’ ”

The officer pulled out his ticket book. “I said, ‘Sir, don’t write me no ticket. I’m not going to sign it. I wasn’t speeding, and for me to sign that ticket would be to lie, and I don’t lie.’ ”

About this time, the officer waved for the Jeep driver to leave the scene. The officer probably figured he might be there a while.

The two of them debated the need for Becky to sign the citation.

“So a thought came to me. I wrote ‘Not Guilty’ next to my name.”

This, of course, made sense and both Becky and the motorsickle--er, motorcycle--officer were happy.

Her court date set, the Hesperia grandmother did some homework. Visiting one attorney, then another, and then the law library, the retired nurse came to learn that radar readings can’t be trusted on winding roads. “That little boy didn’t have a foot to stand on,” she said of our motorsickle officer.

She was ready for this week’s day in court.

“The judge asked me how fast I was going. I said there’s no way you can do 60 on that road. You’d be crazier than a betsy bug.” (“You don’t know what a betsy bug is? Then you’re not from Oklahoma, honey.”)

“So then, I meant to say I was going between 40 and 45, but lo and behold, I murdered myself. I said I was going between 45 and 50, because just before that part of the road, the speed limit was 50, and I always drive less than the speed limit. But I crucified myself.

“So I asked the judge, ‘What’s my fine?’ It was only a hundred dollars but, oh Lord, I can’t afford that. I’m on Social Security and the bird only flies on the third of the month. I said, ‘Can you put me in jail, if they’ll feed me, and let me lay it off?’

“He said he couldn’t put me in jail and he wouldn’t let me go to a jury trial. So I said, ‘What do you suggest, then? And he wrote out a little slip of paper and told me where to take it.”

It was an order for her to report to the Victor Valley Community Services Council, which coordinates court-ordered community service punishments. “He wanted me to work for them, for free, for 20 hours,” she said.

Becky dutifully reported to the agency and was offered a menu of selections of where she could perform her 20 hours of community service.

(“We’ve had people up to 70, maybe 80 years old, but never as old as Ada,” said Theresa Black, who handles court referrals at the social services agency.)

Becky--who didn’t want her picture taken for this story--decided to serve her time for speeding at the local Meals on Wheels program. Fast food, perhaps?

“So after New Year’s, I’ll go to the senior citizens center and start working,” Becky said. “I’m not sure what I’ll do. Maybe scrub the floors.

“But I don’t mind telling you, it really has me upset. I’m 93 and never had a ticket and I’m not guilty of this one. It hurts, honey. I wanted them to put me in jail.

“I said, ‘That’ll really make the headlines: Ada Beck, 93 years old, never had a ticket, was going to spend Christmas day in jail for speeding.’ ” So in early January--after hosting a Christmas dinner for a woman she recently met who has no local family or friends--Ada Beck will show up for her community service.

“I’m active. If you don’t use it, you lose it. I’m always doing things for other people and I don’t want anybody doing anything for me.

“I wonder if I’ll get a free lunch [at Meals on Wheels],” she said. “Oh, I’ll probably pay the two dollars.”