Trains; fine for boarding or riding with fraudulent or counterfeit ticket, etc. (SB1066)

I routinely ride the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail system in the Washington DC area to get to my job at L'Enfant ... which is much nicer than driving into DC. (Until July!!) I got an "I forgot to validate my ticket" summons on 6 July, the day after the holiday, when the trains were empty. It is a Class 2 criminal misdemeanor, which in Virginia means a possibility of jail... time. At the arraignment in late August, the judge apologized to all four of us, and called it a "devastating piece of inappropriate legislation" ... she banged her gavel and in a loud voice immediately wiped out jail time (actual and suspended) as well as probation. rnrnrnrnAt my trial this past Tuesday 22 September, the VA commonwealth's attorney "null-processed" all four cases, with another apology from both him and the judge ... no fine, no penalty, no jail, no costs, no pleas, no conviction, no record, no nothing. The presiding court, the Alexandria General District criminal/traffic court, now hates this new law and is handling these cases routinely this way. The zealot culprit legislator who caused this problem in the first place in March 2009 is Virginia Delete Rob Bell of Albemarle County who seems to want to become the next Virginia Attorney General. Mr. Bell amended Virgina State Senator Ms. Toddy Puller's bill, designed to handle counterfeit tickets and repeat offenders, but didn't include "forget to validate" as a Class 2. But Mr. Bell ramrodded it through in an "all-in-one"! Now, even VRE is supporting a revision to the legislation, which is... targeted to be effective on 01 Feb 10. Virginia Delegate Dave Marsden is the prime champion of the revision to "make it right"!! The entire Virginia legislature (both the house and the senate) and the Virginia Governor so screwed this up, so royally, so big time !! We all suffer greatly as a result!!