Ha, I didn't know you were black or "african american"
At any rate I had another court appearance about 6 months ago for a separate traffic offense, and while I was in the court room a well dressed, clean cut, younger black man got his charges dropped doing exactly what I did today (talking to the prosecutor etc). It's all about how you dress/act in court. You show up in torn jeans and a Budweiser shirt bitching about the charges then yea, you probably won't fair well.