Myrtle Beach night court: Court system stays awake on first night of bike week
There was no Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone, no Richard Moll as Bull the bailiff and certainly no womanizing prosecutor played by John Larroquette.
But, Myrtle Beach’s version of Night Court early Saturday wasn’t without a cast of characters who faced minor charges on the first day of Atlantic Beach Bikefest. They appeared in court to have bond set on their charges. One was Alphonso Bromell, a frequent flier.
“I was gonna say it’s been a while … well, what was that three days ago you were in?” Judge J. Scott Long asked.
“And two days before that.”
“And a week before that.”
Long seemed to run out of days in May that he could list Bromell’s court appearances. That recap drew a laugh from the few in attendance for the hearings, but little reaction from Bromell, who appeared handcuffed on a video monitor.
All of his May charges are petty crimes. His most recent for public intoxication drew a bond of $102, the minimum. Even so, Bromell asked for a personnel recognizance bond.
“No sir, this is the fourth time this month,” Long said.
He then wished Bromell well, told him his court date and called for the next defendant. That last exchange basically became Long’s version of “$50 and credit for time served,” the line Anderson frequently used to sentence many of the people on the popular 1980s television show.
Stone tried to keep a rapport with many suspects. Long told a woman from the Rochester, New York area about how he visited relatives in the region and asked about a nearby skiing mountain.
“It’s cold up there,” Long said.
Some arrestees shared their plight facing hundreds of dollars in bond. One out-of-state suspect pleaded for a personal recognizance bond and said she had no money, no family and buried her child on Saturday. That led Long to wonder why she was in Myrtle Beach a week later.
Another told of issues with the jail's calling system and if she wasn’t at work in a few hours she would lose her job.
A well-dressed woman, Jennifer Humpsl, was charged with disorderly conduct for shouting obscenities on Ocean Boulevard at about 6:30 p.m. Long told her about time and place for using obscenities and to think about her words.
“Lord, some of the music my children listen to has all kind of profanity in it,” Long said.
While Myrtle Beach night court lacked the star power of the long running television show, it had one celebrity. OK, at least the name was close to being famous.
Devin Tyler Moore was charged with driving too fast for conditions and having a suspended license.
This story was originally published May 26, 2018 at 3:09 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach night court: Court system stays awake on first night of bike week."