Disorderly Conduct - Criminal?

What is the name of your state?
Pennsylvania

My primarry questions first to save you time:

Is a Disorderly Conduct criminal or does a Disorderly Conduct apear on my police record / criminal record?

Why wont I have a puplic defender, or could I request one?

Thank you.
If you are interested in my case, please read on, I wrote it as detailed as possible and it is nothing but the truth.


I was dropping my brother off at his work which is an amusement-park.
The drop-off spot is a smaller parking area also beeing a dead end.
Everything is loose gravel.
When I was going to turn around I had the wheels all the way turned and I hit the brakes.
My rear brakes must have locked up for a second and the back of the car sliped around.
That slip viewed from the top would be about 20 to 30 degrees.

The problem is that my car lets me appear as a reckless driver (which I am not). It is a manual transmission, therefore I was at a higher rpm that an automatic would be at the same speed.
Added to that my muffler is broken which makes the car loud.
I must have had already attention before I even entered the drop-off location.
The "spin" then resulted in the parks general-manager getting really mad at me.

He emidiately walked up to my car, making me and my brother stay at the spot.
He told me to get out of the car.

To give you a better picture, I was beeing polite and concerned at the same time.
I asked him what I did wrong and he told me that I was doing "donuts".

I tried to explain to him that I didnt do a donut wereas he got really mad and started yelling at me that he saw me.

He then called the local police. At that point I got really uncomfortable, I told him that I had to go home since my little sister is home alone (which wasnt true but I needed some excuse). He wouldnt let me leave though.

After about 10 minutes of waiting and taking peoples looks, the police arived. The manager walked up to the police car and talked to the officer.
The officer then talked to me and told me that this is not a high way wereas I agreed.

At this point my only goal was to make life simple and get out of this situation. I didnt tell the officer my side of the storry nor did I argue anything. Also the officer didnt ask me if I did this or did that.
I was hoping for some warning, I would have even agreed with a small fine, just to get things settled.

The officer then wrote me a Disorderly Conduct. I asume he belived everything the park gerneral-manager told him (what ever that was). Obviously they knew each other.

The citation states that:

Drove at exessive rate of speed.
Drove in wreckless manner.
Span around several times.

I signed it (not admitting guilt) and drove home.

I plead not guilty and now I got the letter for my hearing.

****************

I am very unfamiliar with law, any advice will be greatly appriciated!
Do I have any chance in winning this hearing and getting out of this unfortunate situation?
What arguments could you sugest me?
Is this case too small for a puplic defender?

[For the puplic defender I might add that I am originally from Germany. I dont think that makes even the slightest difference but like I said, I will be as specific as possible]

Please dont sugest me to get a lawyer, I am 21 years old and I still go to school. I have about $600 saved for college since I will live in a dorm and need to pay for my own living expences.

This is another question you might have, witnesses:
Yes there are witnesses. I have my brother as witness who was in the car and the park general-manager has 2 couples (park guests) as witnesses.

I also do have a bad rotor on my rear driver side which could explain the brakes locking up.

I would be very very greatfull for any responses!
Thank you very much for your time!

You're in the wrong section, but until it's moved, here are some thoughts:

1- Remove the indentifying personal information from the citation you posted. With the amount of ID theft out there, why you would post that is beyond me.

2- You do not "need" a lawyer, although one always (ok, not always, "usually") helps.

3- If you have 4 witnesses who can say you didn't do what the ticket claims you did, bring them with you to the court date and tell the judge you have 4 witnesses to your innocence, and the police have NO eyewitnesses.

4- Either the judge will ask the witnesses questions, or, if not, you can ask them about what they saw that day.

5- Even if you're convicted, I wouldn't lose any sleep. This is about the lowest ticket you can possibly get other than a parking ticket.

The social security number was blended out, I didnt care about the rest of my informations since they could be looked up in any phone book.

However I made the requested changes.
I am sorry for beeing in the wrong forum. Which one should I post it in?

Like I said, I dont even know if a Disorderly Conduct is something criminal.

Thanks also for your advice.

EDIT:
What do you mean dont loose any sleep. The fine could easily be $400, thats more then half of what I saved working the whole summer. That might not seem alot to you but I only got payed $5.80 an hour, not even making it 40 hours a week.

You might get a fine, or You might get a year condition discharge , Etc.

Go tell your side to the Judge , he/she maybe sympathetic . But if there's 4 whitenesses that said you were doing donuts and were driving reckless at high rates of speed w/ people around , the Judge may not be too inclined to be lenient.

If he/she does impose fines that are high ask him/her if they can give you time periods to pay it that you can afford .

If you can not afford an attorney ask one to be appointed .