5-10 grand is a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things. I don't know what the charge was but the burden on the taxpayer for a judge, prosecutor, clerks, the building, lights, time spent on your case compared to the backlog of other cases and so on is much higher. I can almost guarantee that this was not about money. The prosecutor looks at a case like this and sees a person representing themselves and they know that's quick work so they decide to push for a harsher sentence instead of maybe trying to cut a deal or even drop the charges (because the prosecutors office has very limited time & resource to dedicate to each case). That's why someone that gets a good lawyer almost always will get a deal or the prosecutor might even drop the case, because a good lawyer can tie the prosecutor up for quite awhile, meanwhile his office has new cases to deal with daily.

Secondly, that 5-10 grand is not going into the pockets of any of the parties mentioned above. Most likely it gets sent to the county treasury or the private party which the state brought suit on their behalf against you.

Was it a DWI?

Sounds like you're just pissed you didn't get a favorable disposition. I've been through this and it sucks but it's nothing personal, just pay the fines and learn from your mistakes.

This post was edited by ofthevoid on Jun 18 2017 01:27pm

i doubt it cost much, the court room was a small office, there were no lawyers, it was 2 state reps vs me and an attorney who represented me

wasn't a DWI, i'm not going to say what the case was in the specifics

my main point was why were they so persistent on trying to harshen my sentence when i was clearly innocent

because you're probably exaggerating based on how exhausting and frustrating court can be for most people

When in Rome do as the Romans.

No lawyer. Prosecutor always wants the most he can get. It's a sign he's good at his job. Remember he represents the interests of society, one such interests is retribution.

You really should of gotten a lawyer or at least just say you want a public defender. The public defender would of set you back up to a grand but i guarantee you wouldn't of gotten the book thrown at you.

who knows, maybe in more important cases its even more cutthroat, im a law abiding citizen so i hopefully will never have to experience something worse than my simple case

i just feel like a bit of my innocence was stolen from me i guess, im very anti money

i truly believe money is an evil thing and those motivated by it disgust me

Well good thing you won...I guess.
Good thing you learned something.

And yes, this is life. Money IS the root of all evil is an old saying, because it's true.