Congrats on the trip, the fish and for bringing your girl with you. Looks like a great day on the water!
I generally have liked DNR officers, except for one in Virginia Beach. He was just a nasty guy. One day, heading out of the inlet, he stopped me out of all the boats heading out and loudly and rudely asked me to produce safety gear, which I did. Then he started fishing...
"How many fish do you have in the boat?" (None, officer, you just watched us launch) "How much have you drunk today?" (None, I don't really like alcohol, officer) He then searched the boat, and found nothing but bottled water. "Do you have your REQUIRED boat operator's certificate?" (I was NOT required to have one, but, Yes, officer, here it is) Even so, Once he found out I lived 3 hours away, he gave me a bogus ticket, confident that I wouldn't show up to court.
I took that day off work. Before court, he saw me and nervously told me that I didn't need to be there. I assured him that I did.
On the stand, he told bold faced lies, saying I was fishing in the channel, saying that I was anchored, saying that I wasn't yielding the right of way and so on. I calmly but firmly refuted every bit of it, making him stammer. The judge's head was going back and forth like he was watching a tennis match. The judge then asked him why, if I really did these things, he didn't ticket me for more. He replied that he was giving me a break.
The judge seemed to accept that. He looked at the ticket, and asked if I had gotten my needed safety equipment. I told him that everything had been there, but he should look at the ticket carefully. HUH? The judge looked at the ticket and said, WHAT IS THIS????
The officer had written me a ticket, not for missing safety equipment, but for not producing it within 1 minute. I think it took me 3 minutes, according to him. There is no such violation code in the law books, so he had hand-written it in.
The judge got visibly angry, and chewed the officer out in front of the whole courtroom for harassing me any my guests, for MAKING UP charges that don't even exist, for tarnishing the name of Virginia Beach law enforcement, for wasting my time and costing me a day's pay, and for wasting his time and the court's time!
The judge then apologized to me on behalf of Virginia Beach and assured me that this was not normal, and would not happen again, cutting a glare at the officer. Then he asked whether anyone else in the court had been ticketed by that officer. A bunch of people raised their hands, and he told them all that their tickets were dismissed. What an awesome judge! I am very thankful for him and others like him.
