A Michigan man whose license was suspended when he appeared for court on a Zoom call while driving says he is extremely embarrassed after the colossal blunder went viral on social media, asking, “What was I thinking?”
“It’s very embarrassing,” 44-year-old Corey Harris told WXYZ in Ann Arbor following the episode in mid-May. “With the type of ties that I have with the church and the community, it’s very embarrassing.”
Harris faced a misdemeanor charge from two years ago when he was accused of driving on a suspended license.
But when he showed up on Zoom for a hearing in the matter two weeks ago, he used his cellphone to join the session virtually from behind the wheel of his car.
Washtenaw County District Court Judge J. Cedric Simpson, widely known for his no-nonsense approach, immediately became puzzled as he noticed Harris was operating a moving vehicle.
The terse judge called out the violation as Harris pulled into the parking lot of a doctor’s office.
“OK, so maybe I don’t understand something,” the judge began, flummoxed by the audaciousness of the defendant. “This is a driving while license suspended … and he was just driving and he didn’t have a license,” Simpson said as Harris began to make sense of his mistake.
Harris sat speechless for a moment in the driver’s seat, realizing he was in an impossible position with Judge Simpson, who revoked the man’s bond on the spot.
“Oh my God,” Harris said at the time, stunned.
From there, Harris reported to jail and spent two days behind bars.
Judge Simpson, who has made a career dealing with harebrained defendants, has grabbed numerous headlines over the past year as videos of his fiery reprimands in court have become popular swill on social media.
Back in April, a Michigan woman already facing charges in a road rage incident found herself in hot water when she turned snippety with Simpson, who threatened to throw her in jail unless she calmed down.
“She better check herself,” Simpson warned the woman’s lawyer.
Last June, Judge Simpson presided over another video hearing that involved a defendant who came before his court after being charged with drug possession.
At one point, court employees observed the defendant, Anthony Lane, in the Zoom waiting room rolling a blunt in plain view.
Simpson then ordered Lane to go to an official corrections facility for drug testing the same day, but when Lane didn’t show up, the judge revoked his bond.
Following his own humbling run-in with Simpson in May, Harris — the illegal driver — claimed that he was on the road due to a family emergency and trying to find help for his wife, leading to his awkward moment in court.
“What was I thinking? I was thinking about getting my wife medical help. That’s what I was thinking,” Harris said. “I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I got a suspended license. I don’t care about all that.”
Harris said he should never have been charged with driving on a suspended license last fall, attributing the mix-up to Saginaw Friend of the Court.
“They were supposed to have been lifted it two years ago, but they didn’t,” Harris said.
According to Secretary of State records, Harris’ license was first suspended in 2010 due to unpaid child support in Saginaw County, WXYZ reports.
Court documents from 2022 indicate that a judge lifted the suspension, permitting Harris to drive again. However, the paperwork never reached the Secretary of State’s office, and as a result, Harris’ license remains officially suspended, according to WXYZ.
He said he went back to the Secretary of State’s office last week to try to clear up the confusion, saying he’d learned a hard lesson from the entire ordeal.
“Always double-check behind these workers because they will say that they will do something, and they don’t do it,” Harris said.
Many on social media reacted to the revelation about the status of Harris’ license.
“The world owes him an apology,” one X user wrote. “It’s concerning how administrative errors can have such significant consequences,” another user wrote.
