Michigan: Man from viral court case disagrees over driver’s license suspension

Officials say a Michigan man who went viral for driving during a Zoom court hearing did not follow the proper procedure to overturn his driver’s license suspension in 2022. He insists he did nothing wrong.

When Corey Harris attended a virtual hearing for a traffic stop on May 15, everyone in the courtroom – including Judge Cedric Simpson – assumed he was knowingly driving with a suspended license. The moment went viral and Harris, 44, spent two nights in jail.

Only then did a local reporter from WXYZ-TV find Saginaw County court records that told a different story. The records, which were later obtained by USA TODAY, showed that Harris’ driver’s license suspension was lifted in January 2022 after a child support case was settled.

But WXYZ-TV reported last week that the license was technically not reinstated because the Michigan Secretary of State’s office never received approval from Saginaw County’s Friend of the Court.

Now the Secretary of State’s office is offering further explanation, telling USA TODAY on Wednesday that it is not the court’s job to grant such a clearance and that Harris must submit the relevant documents herself.

Secretary of State says the burden is on Harris

Although a Saginaw County Friend of the Court judge overturned Harris’ driver’s license suspension, Harris had 10 days to submit a form to the Michigan Secretary of State’s office as proof of reinstatement, Angela Benander, a spokeswoman for the state office, told USA TODAY on Wednesday.

If someone does not turn the form in to the Secretary of State within 10 days, it expires. In this case, the person must contact the Friend of Court again to obtain a new proof document, according to Benander.

“The friend of the court does not send the order directly to the secretary of state,” Benander said, adding that the necessary evidence had not yet arrived at the time of Harris’s recent court hearing.

According to Benander, the office did not receive proof of reinstatement until Monday. Harris “will not have a valid driver’s license until he has completed both the written driving test and the driving test and paid the standard $25 fee for a driver’s license,” she added.

“I think it’s safe to assume that he went back to the Friend of the Court and received another document proving that he had met the requirements to have the suspension lifted, which he then brought to one of our offices,” Benander said.

Bernander said she did not know when he submitted the document.

The Saginaw County Friend of the Court was contacted by USA TODAY on Wednesday but has not yet responded.

Corey Harris says he recently received documents from the Saginaw County Friend of the Court

Harris held a press conference with her new lawyer, Dionne Webster-Cox, on Tuesday and said he had been “attacked,” “persecuted,” “laughed at,” “mocked” and “disrespected.”

“It was literally overdose hell,” Harris said.

Harris said he recently received paperwork from the Saginaw County Friend of the Court and was not aware he had to pay a fee.

“They never told me anything. They just said they would send me some documents in the mail,” he said. “And now it’s 2024 and I just received the documents they were supposed to send me two years ago.”

Harris has an appointment with the Secretary of State on Thursday to “get his licensing in order,” Webster-Cox said.

“My client is not looking to break the law here. He is a law-abiding citizen,” Webster-Cox said. “Now that we know what is going on, we are taking steps to correct the problem and get him in a situation where his driver’s license is in order.”

Since his relatively harmless case made national headlines, Harris says he “doesn’t even go on the Internet anymore.”

“I deleted Facebook, my Instagram, Twitter – I deleted everything,” he said.

Washtenaw County is not allowed to share information about Harris’ case

In an interview with WXYZ-TV last week, Harris said the driver’s license suspension “should have been lifted two years ago, but it didn’t happen.”

USA TODAY contacted the Washtenaw County Public Defender’s Office, which represented Harris during the now-viral court hearing, but was referred to county spokeswoman Crystal Campbell.

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