You're going to learn, Mahoney, that *NOBODY* screws with me!

Guilty or not guilty? I have 0nly 10 days to decide if it's worth the hassle.

Friday afternoon I was pulled over for changing lanes on a bridge in Altoona. Well. Her version of the events is a little different than mine as she claims I "did fail to yield" and cut her off, causing her to slam on her brakes.

First of all, that didn't happen, I don't care what she says. And if she did have to slam on her brakes (she didn't) she was going over the 25 mph speed limit and I don't see why that's turned into a $110 problem for me.

Second of all, get over yourself. I used my judgement just like I do every day when I'm driving. Maybe I was a little closer than I thought. But I was in no way driving aggressively, nor did I intentionally do anything even remotely wrong.

Which brings me to part two of the sordid story. Imagine my confusion when I figured out a couple blocks after she put on her lights and sirens that the unnecessary drama was directed at me. It took me a few blocks to realize this as I was not aware that my lane change was going to be looked upon as a failure to yield by one now very angry female police officer.

By the time I pulled into a local business parking lot a few blocks later, she had convinced herself that I was trying to flee and called for back-up. So at this point, I'm in the car, she's blocking me on one side and she has Sargent Tackleberry blocking me on the other side and standing by the passenger side of my car ready to draw a gun on me.

Really, guys? I was just going to go home, pet my dog and grab a bite to eat.

According to her later explanation after she was done yelling at me and writing a ticket, I narrowly escaped being forcibly pulled from the car for the hot 25-mile-per-hour pursuit I carried her on throughout a few blocks of the city. Which would have been awesome.

But I digress. At this point, I'm trying to decide how to plea. If I say I'm guilty and pay the fine I can just forget about it and not dignify this story by wasting anymore of my time on it. If I say I'm not guilty, I don't think they will listen to my side of the story anyway and I'll still end up paying the fine, so it's a waste of time and a waste of money.

So, I'm taking a poll. Faced with these circumstances, which way would you plead?