A Pennsylvania woman’s decision to toss a few lettuce leaves out of her car window has turned into a lengthy legal mess. Dawn Higgins got a ticket for dumping the lettuce from a McDonald’s chicken salad in October in a Wal-Mart parking lot near Easton, the Easton Express-Times reported. The circumstances are murky, with a police officer accusing her of being belligerent and refusing to pick up the lettuce and Higgins saying that the officer was cocky and that she offered to pick up the lettuce. Higgins then failed to show up for a court hearing on Dec. 22 — which she says she had asked to have rescheduled because of the holidays. She found out the next day that she had been convicted in absentia and fined $173 and change. A lawyer has volunteered to handle her appeal for free, and Higgins is taking the case to the next level. She plans to call her children and some of their friends who were in the car with her as witnesses. “Lettuce comes from the ground, therefore it can go back into the ground,” she told the newspaper. “It’s biodegradable. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong.” © Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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