R.E.M. may have broken up, but that certainly doesn’t mean that the band’s influence won’t continue being felt in the District — notably in court.

Back in May, I had the chance to cover the preliminary hearing of the D.C. voting rights protesters arrested on Capitol Hill during an April 11 demonstration. Given that the charges they faced were relatively minor, their initial pleadings were handled by Judge Richard Ringell of the D.C. Misdemeanor and Traffic Community Court.

That morning, the courtroom was full of people who had allegedly committed traffic violations, many of them alcohol-related. Before even hearing any of their pleas, Judge Ringell played the pack courtroom a five-minute-long video showing the dangers of drunk driving. Produced by the Australian government in 2006, the video, which is set to R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” is a graphic montage of different people drinking, driving and dying.

Ringell told the hushed courtroom that he and his colleagues thought the video best conveyed the dangers of driving drunk, and that he hoped it would convince people to change their ways.