COURTROOM footage has captured the bizarre moment a defendant accused of driving on a suspended license tuned into his hearing via Zoom - while driving.
Judge Cedric Simpson was momentarily lost for words.
"Mr. Harris, are you driving?" Tampa Bay, Florida Judge Cedric Simpson asked the defendant, Corey Harris when he joined the court Zoom call.
"Actually, I’m pulling into my doctor’s office. Just give me one second, I am parking right now," Harris replied.
Simpson began to laugh as he waited for Harris to park his car.
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At the start of the call, the judge wasn't aware of what the hearing was about so he asked, "What are we doing?"
The public defender representing Harris asked the judge for an adjournment for "possibly up to four weeks if the court would allow."
Simpson began to read some documents as the pieces of the puzzle started to come together.
"Okay, so maybe I don’t understand something. This is a driving while license suspended [case], and he was just driving, and he didn’t have a license," Simpson clarifies, confused.
The judge looked around astonished.
The public defender responded, "Those are the charges, your honor, yes."
Simpson said, "I know. I am looking at his record and he doesn't have a license. He's suspended and he's just driving."
Both the public defender and Simpson appeared to be holding in their laughter at the situation.
At one point, Harris asked "Hello?" thinking his audio had cut out.
After an extensive moment of silence, the judge said, "I don't even know why he would do that."
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Simpson revoked Harris’ bond and he was ordered to turn himself in to the local county jail by 6 pm.
As the call ended, Harris could be heard saying "Oh my god," defeatedly.
Okay, so maybe I don’t understand something. This is a driving while license suspended [case], and he was just driving, and he didn’t have a license.
Judge Cedric Simpson
ANOTHER SUSPENSION
Though Harris was aware his driver's license was suspended, not every driver is informed.
A professor was shocked to find out his license had been surrendered while stopped on a cross-country drive home.
A state trooper pulled over Daniel Beaumont in Nebraska and said "'Your driver’s license has been surrendered.'"
"I said, 'What does that mean?' And he explains it usually means you’ve got a driver’s license in a new state."
The trooper told Beaumont, "'You need to take care of this as soon as possible because you could be arrested.'"
After contacting the New York State DMV, he learned that he had another license in New Mexico, though he had never applied for one.
The New Mexico DMX said Beaumont had an old speeding ticket in the state but no license.
The professor's license was restored once his DMV got the facts.
