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Motorists pay fines, get caught in computer glitch

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune Publication date: 2000-05-28

SAN BERNARDINO -- Up to 35,000 ticketed motorists who paid fines and completed traffic school to settle the citations have learned that allegations of failure to appear in court are on their records. A computer glitch was blamed for the error affecting motorists who completed traffic school after Nov. 29.

The computer problem was discovered this month when some motorists began complaining about the failure-to-appear charges showing up on their records, Superior Court spokesman Jerry Keith.

Fortunately, the driving records also show that the charge had been dismissed, meaning no one was arrested and no bad-driving points were added to their driving records, he said.

"If it happened to me, personally, I'd be very concerned about it," said defense attorney Ed Congdon, who represents people in some traffic-related cases. "You never know when that's going to pop up and cost you."

Court officials are working to remove the false misdemeanor charges from the records of all affected motorists, Keith said. http://realcities.yellowbrix.com/pages/realcities/Story.nsp?story_id=10886197&site=charlotte&ID=realcities&scategory=Computers%3AY2K

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), May 30, 2000