"Guilty as Charged"

For those who have read our blog in the past couple of months, you might remember a certain run-in with our local police authority about our expired, out-of-state tags. Today was our court date, and Stefan obediently went. He first met with a prosecutor who reviewed the two charges against us: driving with expired tags and failure to register the vehicle. She asked Stefan about the folder he brought with him - our War-and-Peace book of medical bills, illustrating the story of my complicated pregnancy, bed rest, hospitalizations, etc. Once Stefan explained to her that we endured some difficult times, making it nearly impossible to register the cars, get our drivers' licenses, etc., the prosecutor dropped one charge (the most expensive one) but kept the minor charge plus court fees. She asked how Stefan pleaded, and without hesitation he said, "Guilty." It wasn't worth a fight, and we both knew that although the timing was poor, we were busted for not registering our cars in Georgia. After all was said and done, we escaped with a total fine of just $86, so I am very happy. It could have been several hundred dollars worse, and we're lucky to get off so easy. I think what peeves me more than the fine, however, was the fact that my husband had to stand in a courtroom and plead guilty to a "crime." Seriously. Whatever happened to simply issuing a ticket and moving on with the day?