Judge reschedules court date for O.J. Simpson on speeding ticket
From Susan Candiotti
CNN
MIAMI (CNN) -- A Florida judge Wednesday rescheduled a court appearance for O.J. Simpson on a speeding ticket for going too fast in a boat in a manatee zone.
The action came after Judge Ana Maria Pando issued a misdemeanor bench warrant for Simpson earlier in the day because he did not appear in court on the matter. The court appearance was scheduled after the former football great failed to pay for a ticket he received for the speeding incident July 4 on a south Florida waterway.
The warrant did not mean that Simpson was sought for arrest, rather it meant that "if he happened to be stopped for any reason and if they're in a circumstance where a police officer would check to see if you had any outstanding warrants, he could be arrested, " said Miami-Dade state's attorney office spokesman Ed Griffith.
Because Simpson didn't pay the ticket and didn't appear before a hearing magistrate, the matter became a second degree misdemeanor.
But after the $1,000 bench warrant was issued, Simpson attorney Yale Galanter rushed to Judge Ana Maria Pando's courtroom.
"It was a clerk's error," Galanter told CNN. "I wasn't notified."
The judge agreed to dissolve the warrant, and rescheduled the court appearance for November 22. If it can be shown at that time that the citation has been paid, the case will be dropped.
