The Great Typo Hunt_ Two Friends Changing the World, One Correction at a Time - Jeff Deck [104]
After the court had made sure we weren’t under the influence of any drugs and hadn’t been coerced into our pleas by any outside parties, we were given the opportunity to officially answer that yes, we agreed to the terms of the plea agreement. From there, we moved to a confession, of sorts, by going over the events enumerated by the complaint. “Now, Mr. Herson, tell me what your participation was.”
Benjamin answered, his voice calm and professional, but chilly. “We were driving across the border from New Mexico into Arizona. We were on a cross-country road trip to correct typos and educate people about typo awareness. And we also decided we would like to visit the Grand Canyon while we were coming through.” I wondered if the judge had caught on to the fact that he’d explicitly separated the two intentions. The phrase “And we’d also decided” pulled the typo correction and the Grand Canyon visits apart. Even as Benjamin obliged them with a confession, he was disputing the fine point that we’d gone to the Grand Canyon to commit vandalism. “Though initially we had thought we would take a day off of correcting typos, which is remarked in the blog, we happened upon this sign, saw that it was missing one comma and had an apostrophe that we would like to move, and decided to go ahead and make those corrections.”
“Who actually made the corrections?”
“I believe it was a combination of both of us,” Benjamin replied. “I believe I used the marker to mark out the apostrophe that was in the incorrect place. Jeff used the Wite-Out to add the comma and the apostrophe.”
“All right. Mr. Deck, tell me what you did.”
While I appreciated what Benjamin had done on our behalf, I worried that he was aggravating the judge. He’d stated our actions in a detached manner: Mr. Spock saying, “I am attempting to correct a typo, Captain; it is only logical.” There had been no hint of remorse in his statement.
“Well, I think,” I said, decided think wasn’t strong enough, and started over. “I mean, I agree with everything that Benjamin has stated. We thought—we thought that we were doing something positive by fixing typos around the country. I mean, I realize now that we were misguided, particularly in this instance, by correcting the sign without getting anyone’s permission.” I paused to take a breath; I didn’t like how the words were spilling out of my mouth so fast. “We saw this particular sign and saw that there were two punctuation issues, and we corrected them.”
“Sometimes historic artifacts have an importance all of their own,” the judge intoned.
“Yes,” I agreed.
But Benjamin wouldn’t shut up. In his most respectful tone yet, and yet still with coldness, he added another little detail to the court record: “I’m afraid we hadn’t realized the significance of the sign.”
“Yeah,” I added, trying to massage the tone, “we had no idea. I mean, that’s no excuse, but we had no idea that it was historic.”
“All right.” Translation: enough of that. “Mr. Herson, how do you plead to the charge in Count 1, the conspiracy charge, guilty or not guilty?”
Benjamin paused long enough to set everyone on edge before replying, “Guilty.”
“And Mr. Deck, how do you plead, guilty or not guilty?”
“Guilty.”
The judge accepted our plea, and at last our lawyer acted on our behalf, restating ground that we’d already covered. “My clients, as they’ve indicated, did not have any idea it was a historic sign, and they thought they were doing good by what they were trying to accomplish. And they are very remorseful for their actions.”
We were given three months, at Benjamin’s request, to pay off restitution. Benjamin even said, “Thank you,” while I went with a “Thank