Did the court mess up??

Hi, I live in California, I am 24 years old. I was driving in my car and got pulled over. The officer said that he pulled me over because it looked like my registration tag on my car looked like it was starting to peel off. (It looks fine - I have a scanned picture of it I can send threw email) I didn't do anything wrong. I had proof of insurance and registation. The only problem was I had misplaced my license a couple months ago and didn't get a duplicate yet. But I did have a DMV Id card on me. (that has picture id and my lic. number)

He came back to my window and told me that my license was expired for 2 years. (that couldn't have been possible) So he gave me a ticket for #12500.

The next day I went into DMV and said I needed to renew my License. They said they couldn't see where it was expired but renewed it instead of giving me a duplicate.

So I didn't get anything in the mail, so I called to see what was going on. I called the TRAFFIC court and they said my case was in CRIMINAL court??? this seems wrong to me. So I went back to DMV to get my driving record and to find out more about my license that was suposially expired. My driving record is completely clean and DMV now sayed my license did expire a few months ago. So.... I went and got the vehicle code book and if #12816 Term of License: is correct, my original license should still be good because I got it in Nov 13, 1997. My birthday is October 24.

I went to criminal court on May 18, 2001 and all they did was move it to a different date - still in criminal court.
My Question is.. shouldn't this matter be in Traffic court and shouldn't I have been able to just pay a fine instead of going to all these court dates?

I do know I was wrong for not carring my original license on me but I think they have taken this to far.. I am not a criminal, I just did something EVERYONE has done before drive without bringing my license in the car with me. And everyone I talk to say that I should be in traffic court but nobody can tell me why I am in criminal.

Thank you for all the help anyone wants to give me ~Jayme