The Michigan driver who went viral after brazenly appearing behind the wheel during a Zoom court hearing despite being busted on a suspended license has — at long last — gotten his learner’s permit.
Corey Harris, 44, took a “step in the right direction” to finally becoming a law-abiding citizen after passing his learner’s theory test last week, his lawyer told People.
Harris was filmed heading into a Michigan Secretary of State’s office, taking the test and then celebrating with a little dance outside afterward, a clip posted on Instagram shows.
“One day he has absolutely nothing, and today he has his learner’s permit,” his lawyer, Dionne Webster-Cox, declared. “One day does not make the rest of your life, it can change in a day.”
Harris’ case has taken several surprising twists since his notoriety exploded when he popped up on screen for his May 15 headline-making court hearing while driving his car.
He had initially been pulled over during a traffic stop in Pittsfield Township the previous October and slapped with a citation for driving with a suspended license.
“Mr. Harris, are you driving?” a stunned Washtenaw County Judge J. Cedric Simpson probed.
Casually confirming that he was, Harris responded, “I’m pulling into my doctor’s office actually.”
The dumbfounded judge promptly revoked Harris’ bond and ordered him to be locked up for two nights.
Following his viral hearing and brief jail stint, it was reported that Harris’ license, which had been suspended in 2010 for unpaid child support, was actually supposed to have been reinstated in 2022.
A “clerical error” was initially blamed for the mix-up.
But, in yet another twist, the judge revealed during a follow-up hearing last week that Harris has never actually held a driver’s license.
“Based upon what the court has looked at, he has never had a Michigan license. Ever,” Simpson said, adding that his office had gone back through all of his records. “And [he] has never had a license in the other 49 states and commonwealths that form up this great union. He has never had a license.”
Untangling the confusion, the judge said Harris’ license hadn’t actually been suspended during the initial traffic stop — rather it was his privilege to drive in the state.
“Hence, for example, if he had had a Kentucky license, he would be able to drive everywhere that Kentucky would allow him to drive,” Simpson told the hearing. “He just couldn’t drive in Michigan because his privileges had been restricted.”
The judge noted that Harris had applied for his first Michigan state ID on May 3, 1999, when he was 19.
“Either you have an ID or you have a license,” Simpson said, adding “you cannot have both.”
“And he has religiously, every year, gotten a new ID, and so he knows that he doesn’t have a license. And quite frankly, I just wish he would have said that at the beginning, and all of this hoopla could have been just put all aside.”
Harris’ lawyer stressed to the judge that her infamous client had already taken steps to rectify the ordeal, revealing then that he’d booked his learner’s permit test for last Friday.
After passing his exam, Harris can now take his road test as soon as July 7.
He is then slated to go back before the judge on August 7 where his misdemeanor could potentially be downgraded to a civil infraction, his lawyer said.
