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So a special appearance is a thing. Normally, if you appear in a case, you are consenting to the courts personal and subject matter jurisdiction. But what if you believe the Court lacks jurisdiction and you want to point that out and make arguments on it instead of blowing off the court date and being defaulted? That's a special appearance.

Nornally it's used for personal jurisdiction issues, because subject matter jurisdiction usually isn't in dispute. Personal jurisdiction an be waived, but subject matter jurisdiction not only cannot be waived, it can be challenged any time and the court itself has a continuing duty to make sure its subject matter jurisdiction is not lost such as by dismissals or withdrawals of certain parts of the action.

In this case though, the statute charged was a criminal statute and they were in criminal court. There very clearly is subject matter jurisdiction.