Finally, the citation I received (stupidly) for my neighbor disliking our music came in the mail and there were a few surprises on it. It came on a menacing black and yellow (I mean, this IS Pittsburgh) ticket, but despite all the accompanying papers that said if I entered a guilty plea, pay the fine listed in “total due”, this field was blank.
I called the magistrate’s office to ask them how much the fine for “disorderly conduct - excessive noise” was, thinking if it was around 100 dollars or so I’d just pay it to avoid the headache of going to court to contest it. They basically told me that there was no set fine, and the judge had to decide regardless of a guilty or not guilty plea.
Either way, I have to pay something whether it be a fine or court costs, so I figured since our neighbor already said she wasn’t going to show up in court and the cop straight up said as he was writing us the ticket that he had better things to do that I would plea not guilty and take my chances in court. Given that I wasn’t present the first night referred to on the offense description, and was in bed the second night when the police came, I hope that’s enough to at least get me a reduced fine since the only thing I’m guilty of is living under the same roof as boys who like loud music.
So stressful! I felt kind of like a badass with a disorderly conduct ticket (apparently sleeping with the stereo on 3 floors below you is renegade behavior), but now it’s just annoying and I want it to be over.