Officials: Man from viral court hearing didn't follow process. He says paperwork never came

Officials say that a Michigan man who went viral while driving during a Zoom court hearing didn't follow proper procedure to lift a suspension of his driver's license in 2022. He maintains he did nothing wrong.

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

Only after that did a local reporter for WXYZ-TV find Saginaw County court records that told a different story. The records, also later obtained by USA TODAY, showed that Harris' license suspension was ordered rescinded in January 2022 after a child support case was settled.

But WXYZ-TV reported last week that the license wasn't technically reinstated because the Michigan Secretary of State's office never received a clearance from the Saginaw County Friend of the Court.

Now the secretary of state's office is offering further explanation, telling USA TODAY on Wednesday that it's not the court's role to send such a clearance and that Harris needed to send in the proper paperwork himself.

Secretary of state's office says the burden was on Harris

Although a judge for the Saginaw County Friend of the Court rescinded Harris' license suspension, Harris had 10 days to provide a form proving the order of reinstatement to the Michigan Secretary of State branch office, Angela Benander, a spokesperson for the state office, told USA TODAY on Wednesday.

If someone does not give the form to the Secretary of State within 10 days then it expires, and if that happens, then the person would need to go back to the Friend of Court to get another document of proof, 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 proof had not arrived at the time of the Harris' recent court hearing.

The office did not receive the proof of reinstatement until Monday, according to Benander. Harris "will not have a valid driver's license until he completes both the written driver's exam and road testing and pays the standard $25 fee for a driver's license," she added.

"I believe it's reasonable to assume that he went back to the Friend of the Court and was able to get another document proving that he had met the requirements of lifting the suspension, and then brought that to one of our offices," according to Benander.

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 didn't get paperwork from Saginaw County Friend of the Court until recently

Harris held a news conference on Tuesday with a new attorney, Dionne Webster-Cox, and said he has been "assaulted," "followed," "laughed at," "ridiculed," and "disrespected."

"It has literally been pure, OD (overdone) hell,' Harris said.

Harris said he only recently received paperwork from the Saginaw County Friend of the Court, and he didn't know he'd have to pay a fee.

“Never told me a thing. That’s all they said was that they would be sending me some paperwork in the mail," he said. "And here it is 2024 and I just received the paperwork they were supposed to send me two years ago."

Harris has an appointment with the Secretary of the State on Thursday to get his license issue "in order," Webster-Cox said.

“My client doesn't want to go out here breaking the law. He’s a law-abiding citizen,” Webster-Cox said. “So now that we know what’s going on, we're taking steps to go forward to correct the problem, to put him in a situation where his license is in proper order.”

Since his relatively minor case blew up across the nation, Harris said that he doesn't "even go on the internet anymore."

"I deleted Facebook, my Instagram, Twitter − I deleted everything," he said.

Washtenaw County can't share information about Harris' case

When interviewed by WXYZ-TV last week, Harris said the license suspension was "supposed to have been lifted two years ago, but they didn't."

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

When asked about Harris' submission of the proof of reinstatement, and the overall situation, Campbell said she couldn't share much information because it's an ongoing case.

USA TODAY also reached out to Simpson's chambers, but the judge's spokesperson said he "could not comment on cases that are pending before him."