[sketchygirl]

You really are right, kelly. This WAS probably the dumbest thing i've done in the past 5 years and your response sounds very similar to all of the cops I spoke with. Most of them were like, "it's ok to be scared, but there's a police station right down the street, you would have been fine if you just drove down there and reported it."

Another major factor in my judging of the guy was my past experiences with skinheads and how completely scary they can be (I saw a guy get his jaw dislocated at a party once by a skin w/steel toed boots). I just let those preconceived ideas cloud my judgement. I also rationalized it out at the time thinking "oh, he's probably a criminal, he won't even call the cops!"

I feel like the universe is totally getting back at me on this one. Hopefully I can get the case reopened and can try again. (I'm really not a hit-and-run kind of person! I'd hate to have that on my record forever!)

**Oh and I should mention that Missouri has a really strange system when it comes to traffic tickets. It's called "getting a ticket fixed" - they are on a point system, and when you get a ticket, you hire a lawyer and the lawyer gets the ticket "reduced" to a different, smaller fine. For example, you get a speeding ticket, you pay a lawyer, they go to court for you and you end up with a ticket for littering. It's completely shady.**