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Hi,

I'm Jeremy Crosby.

And I'm Nick Bouchet.

We're your host for the program that's all about your city, Talking Pittsburgh.

Every weekday, we pull together the

news, events, and information you need to stay on top of what's happening in the city of Pittsburgh.

Find Talking Fitzburg on Cable TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, and our live stream on the web.

Plus, you can find all our headlines and stories on Facebook.

And good evening.

Before we start, I would like to explain to you the process that will be following tonight.

Tonight's session is an arrangement session, and you're going to be asked a very simple question, and that is what plea would you like to enter.

Now we have three alternatives.

And the first one is to enter a plea of not guilty, which means you believe you are innocent, or you believe that the city cannot prove its case against

you.

For the burden of proof is on the city to prove that you are guilty.

You do not have to prove that you're innocent.

Now the second alternative is the opposite.

That's to enter a plea guilty, which means you are accepting the facts and circumstances that are stated in the citation that you have already received.

The third alternative is called a plea of no contest, which means though in your heart you think you are innocent, you're also 100% sure

that

should your case goes to trial, you will end up being found guilty.

In essence, you believe that there are lots of evidence against

you.

If

you enter a plea of no contest, you will be found guilty.

However, there is one advantage to a plea of no contest, and that's in cases involving potential civil liability claims in civil court.

So most of you are here for alleged traffic citations.

You should understand that if I find you guilty, in addition to the fine that I'm going to ask you to pay, I'll take from you something called demerit points.

In the state of Wisconsin, if you accumulate 12 demerit points, your driving privilege will be revoked.

If you are here for the offense of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant, also known drunk driving, you should know that you have the right to request a jury trial.

If you do so, the trial will be held at Dane County Circuit Court.

It will not be held in Fitchburg.

So briefly, I'm gonna talk to you a little

bit

about our philosophy in Pittsburgh.

It's our philosophy to see that justice is individualized.

And what I mean that by that is that I'm gonna listen carefully to whatever mitigating circumstances that you may wish to share with me.

You really don't have to tell me anything.

But if you want to talk and and seek um any kind of reduction in the fine or in the points and and have a good mitigating circumstances, you may at you may like to wish uh to say it to me.

Uh and in addition to that, I'm gonna listen and see whatever uh record you may have had in the past.

Just about everything that you may have committed in the past will be in front of me.

Based on those two variables, I'll come with a verdict.

It may be in that two people face to identical citation, may have different outcome.

And that's the case in all traffic citations with the exception of traffic citation that have any basis that relate to alcohol or drugs in these cases.

You pay the maximum penalty as stated in the statute.

The same thing could be said about city ordinances where there is a criminal code counterpart to the ordinance.

Pitchburgh have opted to adopt city ordinances that are parallel to the criminal code.

So we have an ordinance for battery, disorderly conduct, carrying concealed weapons, issuance of worthless checks, prostitution, and even ours.

Now, if a police officer writes a complaint against a citizen, claiming that that citizen have violated the criminal code, and the citizen is being prosecuted in municipal court, you got a major break.

For no matter what, municipal court cannot render a criminal conviction.

So if you have a battery, and the police officer saying this person committed a battery, but the prosecutor is saying, Hey Judge, I want to prosecute it in municipal court.

That prosecutor is saying I'm gonna give this person a break.

But ultimately, it is not a criminal conviction.

So you can write in your employment application.