Cierra Nicole Jachimiak does not know why she had to give the clerk $700. Not exactly.
Jachimiak, 17, stood outside the Chattooga County Courthouse on Aug. 5. About three months earlier, a police officer had pulled her over near Mahan Road. Her learner’s permit had expired in January, and the officer arrested her.
Jachimiak said her mother hired defense attorney A. Holley Strawn to help her through the case. A senior at Chattooga County High School, Jachimiak hopes to go to the University of Georgia next year. She just wanted the case behind her.
So, on Aug. 5, Jachimiak waited in the hallway. She said Strawn was inside the courtroom, though Jachimiak doesn’t know what her attorney did or who she talked to. All she knows is this: Eventually, Strawn walked out and told her the case would cost $700.
Jachimiak wrote down the desired amount, handed the check to Strawn and watched her attorney walk back in.