Charlie tried to attend the public arraignment of Mike Barskey, but before he could even walk into the courtroom, Jesse was confronted and arrested for not removing his hat in the courtroom. Still outside the courtroom, in the lobby, Charlie attempted to ask the bailiffs about the hat-wearing rule: why did it exist? what law allowed such a rule to exist? etc. The bailiffs claimed Charlie was blocking the 6-foot-wide doorway and, after some unknown person shouted "Assault!" the bailiffs (or it may have been a cop) forcefully shoved Charlie into the walk and caused him enough pain to cry out.
Charlie was arrested, arraigned, and released on his own recognizance on the same day. A few weeks later at their trial for him, he tried to ask questions to which the responses would reveal the immorality and tyranny inherent in the system where a judge can make any silly law and ruin a person's life for it. When the judge announced a guilty verdict for Charlie, Charlie told the judge that it was the judge's duty to impose the maximum penalty for this Class A Misdemeanor (which would have been $2,000 and 1 year in jail). The judge said that in fact he did not have to impose the maximum penalty, and he instead imposed the penalty suggested by the prosecution: 1 day in jail satisfied by time served, and no fee.