By Cheyenne Galloway
WOODLAND, CA – In a hearing here Thursday in Yolo County Superior Court, the discussion centered around a driver accused of driving 15 miles per hour above the speed limit, and then failing to complete a court-ordered program.
The misdemeanor involved a commercial truck driver, reportedly engaged in an Advent learning program to address the accused’s speeding violation.
As explained by the accused in court, “Unfortunately, due to some circumstances, I was unable to complete that (program) and they gave me a two-week extension today and said that they were going to put the extension in their notes and follow up with me on Friday.”
Judge Catherine Hohenwarter was familiar with the arrangement raised by the accused, and said she would give the accused four weeks to complete the program because of the accused’s inability to appear in court.
“He initially failed to appear early in the year,” said Judge Hohenwarter. Nonetheless, the accused attended court in March, when the court gave him the Advent program offer.
According to the judge, “A month later, we gave him another continuance, so at that point, he had about six months to complete, then he just failed to appear in court at the last court date.”
Judge Hohenwarter then declared that nothing had been done on the accused’s behalf, but she was willing to give him one last chance to complete it within four weeks.
After these next four weeks, if the issue is not resolved, the accused will no longer be eligible to complete the Advent learning program issued by the court, said the judge.
“Yes, I apologize, Your Honor. The failures to appear were not intentional. My on-the-road job sometimes takes me in areas where I don’t have the best reception, so I do apologize,” the accused responded.
“If this is your job, commercial driver, it is imperative that you get this done. This is a very nice program. It’s good for your license, so I am going to expect that it’s done within a short time now and that you get that certificate to the district attorney and comply with any parts of that program,” concluded Judge Hohenwarter.
The accused apologized and took accountability for not completing the Advent online classes on time, confirming his return date on Nov. 2.
