Hawk Cove, Texas, December 15, 2018. At 12:00 P.M. on a clear Saturday, at the corner of Morris and Northshore, the Hawk Cove Police Department wrote citation No. 002667 to the man known around here as the potato guy. He got the name by giving potatoes away. The violation, as written on the ticket (dated 12/15/18), in full: “SOLICITING WITHOUT PERMIT.”
What the ticket says
- Issued by: “W GUFFEY 204,” handwritten in the “ISSUED BY” box.
- Charge: “SOLICITING WITHOUT PERMIT.” The second violation line is empty.
- Ordinance or section cited: none. No ordinance number appears anywhere on the ticket.
- Fine: none written. The ticket is a notice to appear, not a bill. Its own margin reads “THIS IS NOT A PLEA OF GUILTY.”
- Court: Municipal, 1585 Maria St., Hawk Cove, TX 75474, 903-447-5330, “ON OR BEFORE 1/9/2019 AT 3:00 P.M.”
- Judge: the printed name, “JAMES H. BARNETT,” is struck through. A different name is handwritten above it.
- Other boxes: the boxes for search, contraband and physical force are left blank. A silver 2006 Chevrolet pickup is listed. Nothing on the ticket describes what was being solicited.
Which permit
The ticket does not say. The City’s permit-fee ordinance, 100-11, is where a solicitor permit appears. The copy we hold labeled “5th Revision 12/11/2018” lists “Door to Door, Street Vendor, Donor / Solicitor permit (annual)” at $35.00, adding that the “Permit fee may be waived for valid charitable organizations or vendors performing a legitimate charitable function” (5th Revision, p. 2). The penalty, “upon conviction,” is “a fine not more than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00)” (p. 4). The fee page filed with our 4th Revision copy (12/11/2017), p. 3, which carries no revision number of its own, lists only a “Door to Door or Street Vendor permit (90 day permit).” Among the copies we hold, the word “Solicitor” first appears in the revision dated four days before the ticket.
Whether that 5th Revision was ever passed by the Council is its own story; the Municipal Judge’s 2019 account of it is in Municipal Judge Resigns, Leaves His Reasons in Writing.
How it ended
The ticket set its court date for January 9, 2019. That is also the date the City’s Municipal Judge later wrote, in his resignation letter, “I HELD COURT ON JANUARY 9TH OF 2019” (letter, March 26, 2019). Beyond that, we hold no judgment, no docket entry, no plea, no receipt for a fine and no dismissal for No. 002667. Nothing in the City records we hold says how it ended. If the Municipal Court has a record of the outcome, it has not reached us. Until it does, No. 002667 is what every citation is: an accusation, not a conviction.