Location: New York
Last Friday I got a letter in the mail from the town where I used to live (which is 3 hrs away from where I currently live) saying I have a failure to appear for a ticket from 2019 and if I don't respond they will suspend my driver's license. The ticket is from something that happened in 2019 where I had let a friend drive us home in my car and we got pulled over for a headlight out and it turned out my friend didn't have a driver's license (which I did not know). I thought he was given all the tickets but it appears I had one for "facilitating aggravated unlicensed operation" which is a misdemeanor. I called the town clerk and she said I pled not guilty in 2024 (I don't remember doing this) and she emailed me a plea from the prosecutor downgrading the ticket to 509-1 unlicensed operator (which is not a misdemeanor but makes it that I was the unlicensed one?) and removed the suspension order from the dmv. I called a lawyer monday but after speaking to them very briefly and getting told they would call me back, I can't get a hold of them.
Question: Is it in my best interest to just accept the plea for the downgraded ticket of 509-1 even though *I* did have a license at the time to avoid getting a misdemeanor or do I try to fight this considering how old it is. I also know through the grapvine as well as internet research that the officer who issued the ticket is no longer a town police officer but a state trooper (does this make them less likely to show up?). I really want to avoid getting the misdemeanor and I know there is a possibility if I reject the plea and show up with a lawyer I could lose the case I just don't know what the odds actually are.