I lied to the police to get students out of a driving ban

I work for the police. I only work on JVs, and this was the first time I met a black student. I’ve been working as a JP for ten years and there is no diversity in the JP or police. <br><br>I was on licence duty and I was given a case where a 17 year old black man with no criminal history was charged with driving with no license. He had been fined for DUI and the DUI was being considered for a driving ban. <br><br>I spoke to the police officer before the hearing and knew their likely line of questioning. I called up the prosecutor and told her to darken his complexion when submitting the evidence pictures. <br><br>I called the teen to the bench and asked in his most DUI case was really his first offense and he said yes. But I deliberately pretended to not believe him and said that driving under the influence twice in 8 months was a serious crime. But then I realized I had written down the DUI case was 3 years ago. I was actually talking about his most recent offense was 8 months ago. <br><br>In the past, it had seemed fair to raise other crimes to increase the sentence. But I was biased to give the teen a lighter sentence. I also knew his lawyer JF who was a sitting judge on the bench with me. I knew he had to struggle in his career because he was black. <br><br>I realized the teen was only 17, which was a factor that could reduce the sentence. I asked the police officer if there were any mitigating circumstances in the case. He said there were none. <br><br>I deliberately pretended to not believe him and asked again if there were any mitigating circumstances in the case. Finally, he remembered the teen had used his DUI to DUI was 3 years ago and that he had only parked his car on the street. <br><br>But I said the teen’s car was parked on a busy street. I said it was natural to give him DUI DUI was 3 years ago and that he only parked his car on the street. I gave him a warning. <br><br>The teen and his lawyer were so happy that they kissed me on the cheek. But the police officer was angry and said he had lied to the police officer by tampering with the evidence. <br><br>The prosecutor was also angry with me. <br><br>But I don’t regret it. I’ve been sitting on the bench for ten years and seen the police use quieter sentences to give black teens longer sentences and jail sentences. It was a lie but justice remains justice.