recently got a ticket for posting flyers on a utility pole ( i didnt kow that was illegal at the time) me and an associate were out doing this a couple times that week, being seen and even stopped once by the local college cops (they have a college specific precient) asked what we were doing and sent on our merry way. A plainclothes officer pulled up next to us at a gas station, in front of a dfferent local officer, and cited us. On the citation the violation is written as “placing signs on utility poles” but the code cited relates to grafitti on streets and sidewalks. In other words he cited the wrong code next to the description.
with all this information, What are my chances of getting out of paying the $114.50 for the fine?
What’s your city/state and ordinance number. If that ordinance truly doesn’t forbid what you were doing I would certainly fight it and assumed the officer was mistaken in his understanding this law.
nahsville tn. the ordinance i was cited for on the ticket was
“6.04.020 Prohibited on street, sidewalk and thoroughfare surfaces.
It is unlawful for any person to affix in any manner, permanent or temporary, any words, phrases or advertising matter upon the surface of any street, sidewalk or other thoroughfare within the jurisdiction of the metropolitan government.”
the one described was
“6.04.010 Prohibited on posts and poles.
It is unlawful for any person to affix in any manner any sign, placard, poster, card, banner or other indicia of the interests of any person, group or organization on any post or pole, including, but not limited to, light and telephone poles, on any street, sidewalk, thoroughfare or public right-of-way within the jurisdiction of the metropolitan government.”
You can try to fight it if you want, and while you might be technically not guilty of the cited ordinance, I’m not sure that defense is going to work. I think they’re pretty damn close. The one you should have received says you can’t advertise on a poll, the one you did received says you can’t affix temporary advertising (I think we can agree that you did do that) on the surface of the street.
Honsetly, if you do want to take it to court (which is always a good idea), you might be better off with the “I didn’t know”/“There was already a hundred other ones hanging” defense.
yeah i didnt know would probably be the best being that the college cops didnt give us any guff, even to the extent of talking to us for several minutes.
Are the college cops rent a cops or real cops (Where I went to school the campus cops were actually a subsection of the sheriff’s department). If your campus cops aren’t real cops, I probably wouldn’t even mention that you saw them.
Oh, and were the college cops and the other ones while you were at the same place?
not actually sure. from what i’ve heard vandy hs its own holding cells and everything so i would think they are “real” cops. the cops we spoke with was on an occaision 2 days prior, but there was a vandy cop who pulled into the gas station to fuel their vehicle just before we were cited by the plainclothes officer.
Okay, then my second question still stands. Was the OP in the same location both times he talked to/saw the cops. If he was, perhaps he was off campus when the campus cops saw him in which case they might not have cared. OR perhaps if he was on campus when the campus cops saw him it was either legal there or (more likely) they didn’t care.
Though IANAL, my view is that this could be worth fighting, provided the hassle of going to a hearing is moderate.
You should approach this rather meekly, saying to the judge something along the lines of “Your Honor, I was ignorant: I thought that posting flyers was okay, but I now know it isn’t, and I apologize for doing this and for taking up your time. But I read the ordinance I’m accused of violating, and I don’t see where it covers what I did - it talks about sidewalks, and I didn’t post on a sidewalk. So I think I should be found not guilty and told to go away and not do this again.”
I tried protesting a ticket like that. The judge said so what ,you were doing something illegal,pay the fine. To get a jury or go up the court ladder is time consuming and expensive. But if you do your homework, present all the evidence politely, the judge may feel generous that day.
If you are a Vandy student, pope_hentai, you might not get the best hearing in court in Nashville. Years of drunken frat boys have left patience pretty thin IIRC.
To which one response would be “Hey, the law wants to take $114.50 from me? How 'bout doing so in accordance with the law?” (Yes, this would probably not be well received.)
It might be possible to get by with “In that case, your Honor, could I at least request that the citation be re-issued citing the correct ordinance? I don’t want the record to show that I was found guilty of somthing I didn’t do.”
The point is that the OP looks to be technically innocent of the charges, due to a screwup by the police. Judges do pretty much as they please, but letting this stand would be at least a bit dodgy.
heh. not a vandy student luckily. i know they must be bad, they’ve got a police force just to handle them. hopefully i’ll be able to get out of this… i just don’t really want to pay the money is all. thats a good chunk of change. ahj well i suppose i’ll se ehow it goes when my associate and i get to court to hear on both of em… unless they decided to just pay it.
$114 is pretty cheap for a ticket, I’d be concerned that the other one might be even higher. You could call the police department and ask though. Someone should be able to tell you how much it is.
There are two things at play here. One is how the law is written. The other is how it has been interpreted in the past. No way for us to know the latter from the internet.
Your results will vary. Several years ago, a friend of mine got a ticket for having a headlight out, but the officer’s citation actually named the code about trucks not having fog lights attached to the roof, or some such. Rookie mistake. The judge threw it out. On the other hand, it’s quite possible that the judge will say, Yeah, but you were breaking the other law, right? Pay up.
If you’re going to go this route, don’t say that you know the other law (which you were actually violating). Say you looked up the law you broke (as cited on the ticket) and you don’t see how you were breaking it. Sure, there may be precedent for flexible interpretation of the two statutes, in which case you’re SOL, but it’s probably your best shot.