In a formal complaint, the officer said he “recovered a marijuana pipe containing marijuana residue from the center console of said vehicle.”

Such a tiny amount of pot, if that’s what was actually in the pipe, would normally be considered a violation. But it was elevated to a misdemeanor by the police officer’s statement that the pipe was “in a public place open to public view.”

Perhaps that is true, though one wonders why anyone, being pulled over by the police, would not close a center console if the pot pipe really had been visible. Anthony insisted that he would never have gotten in the car had he known it was there.

“I don’t involve myself around that,” he said. “I’m a working citizen.”

The police officers issued the driver and Anthony desk appearance tickets, meaning they had to appear in court this week, more than two months after the stop.

“I come back to work that Monday, and they said, ‘We got to let you go because you’ve been arrested and your fingerprints came back to us in Albany,’ ” Anthony said. “They knew the date, the time. They said, ‘We’ll give you your job back once you prove your innocence.’ ”

Anthony puts his annual salary at about $40,000. By this week, when the case finally went to court, Anthony was out more than two months’ pay. The driver showed up and, in a quick negotiation, pleaded guilty to a traffic violation and agreed to pay a fine of $180. Since Anthony was not behind the wheel, he could not make the same deal.

The district attorney’s office offered to dismiss the case in a year if Anthony stayed out trouble. But that would mean a full year out of work. A new offer was made: dismissal after 90 days. That would still be an additional three months of out of work, on top of the two he had already lost. The case was adjourned.