As someone that works in the transportation field, albeit mostly with CDL drivers, it strikes me as odd that this would be a misdemeanor unless they tacked on a reckless driving charge on top. Typically, this is a plea down situation for first time offenders that go 15+ over and they plea for a lesser, generic charge. A summary offense it is referred to in PA I believe.
I would call your local court and see if you can learn more about the record. Why it is listed as a misdemeanor and not a summary offense, etc.
To be more specific, I deal in background checks in the transportation industry, and sometimes these things do occur erroneously. I would call and try to learn some more information. 15+ over is a pretty major offense in the CDL industry, but I highly doubt it carries the weight of a misdemeanor for a first time offender for a non-CDL driver.
I did take a brief look through Title 75 (PA Vehicle Code) and there doesn't appear to be much in the way of grounds for this misdemeanor charge - though, I'm not a lawyer. But I'm also not unfamiliar with these regulations.
I don't know, check it out, could be a mistake at a local level. Might not get scooped up by a national criminal search either...county criminal searches are much, much different. Very easy to slip things like this by a national search.
Thanks, I was planning to do this (once I calmed down from initial WTF).
I'm 98% sure it was an error (and honestly starting to think it was an error on the part of the company that does this rental thing, but who knows).
More info that I left out. I got the ticket, instead of a speeding ticket, the officer gave me a "failure to obey traffic sign" and wrote in the notes "80 in 65". He explained to me this would prevent it from affecting my insurance and receiving points (it did) and said this operates exactly like a parking ticket (I guess I should have looked more into it). It had a date for traffic court, or to mail in the fine amount $ if plead guilty. I mailed in the fine amount (of course 20 year old me didn't mention this to my parents) and a couple days later the Court mailed a receipt to my parent's house (that was a fun explanation!) Anyways, I specifically remembering them wanting to know what I got a citation for. I imagine if it said a misdemeanor on that it would have been a bigger deal.
Never thought I'd be dealing with this 6+ years later, but such is life