Man attends Zoom hearing on driving license suspension and is baffled by judge

“Mr. Harris, are you driving?” Simpson asked. “Actually, I’m driving to my doctor’s office,” Harris said. “So give me a second, I’m just parking.”

Harris did not say why he was visiting the doctor. The Washington Post was unable to contact Harris’s legal representative.

The hearing, held May 15 in Washtenaw County’s 14A District Court, is the latest in many bizarre scenes that have played out in courtrooms since the pandemic began, from a doctor calling into a hearing from an operating room to a lawyer accidentally showing up with a cat filter. Washtenaw County announced last year that it was stopping live streaming of court proceedings and that the use of Zoom would remain at the judge’s discretion.

The stunned judge tilts his head and waits a few seconds for the defendant to park. He rests his head on his hand and asks Harris: “Are you standing still?”

“I’m driving in right now,” Harris says.

After Harris apparently parked his vehicle, the judge tried to understand the situation.

“He was just driving and doesn’t have a license,” Simpson said. After a long silence, Harris is seen opening and closing his mouth at least twice before saying, “Um.”

“I look at his records. He doesn’t have a license,” Simpson said. “He’s suspended and just driving.”

“That’s correct, Your Honor,” Harris’ attorney, Washtenaw County Assistant Public Defender Natalie Pate, says from the courtroom.

“I don’t even know why he would do that,” Simpson said before revoking Harris’ bail and ordering him to surrender at the Washtenaw County Jail by 6 p.m. that day.

“Oh my God,” Harris sighs, throwing his head back into the driver’s seat.

Footage of the hearing quickly spread on social media, with users declaring the Zoom hearing was the “funniest” video they’d seen in a long time, while others expressed sympathy for the public defender who attempted to adjourn the case during the hearing. Fox 2 reported that Harris’s attorney said she “aspires to live in a world where people aren’t incarcerated for non-violent crimes,” without commenting further.

This is not the first time a Zoom court hearing has gone viral.

In March 2021, a virtual domestic violence case made headlines when the defendant appeared for a Zoom hearing from his alleged victim’s home. This prompted officials to postpone the hearing as the prosecutor raised concerns about the victim’s safety and pointed out the dangers domestic violence victims faced when forced to stay home during the pandemic.

In February 2021, a California doctor attended his Zoom court hearing to contest a traffic violation while operating on a patient. “I’m in an operating room right now,” he said while wearing surgical gowns, gloves, a mask and a surgical cap. The judge immediately adjourned the proceedings, citing the patient’s welfare.

But there were also cheerful moments.

That same month, CBS 13 reported that during a virtual hearing in Sacramento, a defendant logged in while getting a haircut at a barbershop. “You know what, you’ll have to come back another day when I have your full attention,” the judge said.

That same month, a Texas lawyer also accidentally logged into a hearing using a Zoom filter that made him look like a kitten. “I’m not a cat,” he said in the courtroom as the cat mimicked his words with its lips.

Attorney Rod Ponton later told The Washington Post he was happy to give people the opportunity to “laugh at my cat moment at my expense. … We’ve had a stressful year.”