Surely your sense of honor and pride would prevent you from hiring a (GASP!) Scumsucking Lawyer!
I’m sending out an APB on the secret lawyer’s network telling everybody they shouldn’t take your case. Just go ahead and plead guilty now.
Wildest Bill, was there a doughnut shop in the area?
"Seven why were they all there in that place,at that time? "
If they are trainees, yes. We would get that many in my city & we don’t have any donut shops.
Your goal should be to make it more expensive for them to collect the fine than the fine sets you back. Always always always fight tickets, even if you’re at fault.
First thing: request for discovery. Request that the police send you copies of the video recorded from ALL cars involved in your stop. Request copies of BOTH sides of the officers’ copies of the tickets. Request copies of departmental procedures that are to be followed when performing a traffic stop. They’re allowed to charge you reasonable copying fees for this, so be prepared.
Write the court and request a continuance. Surely, there’s some valid reason why you can’t make the first court date. The farther you push the date back, the harder it’ll be for the officers to make it to court, and the more likely it is that your citations will be dismissed.
Always submit these request in writing, always keep copies, and always send them certified mail, return receipt requested. You’ll have a signature proving that they received your request, so they can’t say, “We never got any request!”
In my opinion, you don’t need a lawyer to get through traffic tickets. Go to Amazon, look for books on traffic ticket defense, and pick up a few. They’ll give you invaluable advice.
Bill, I have children. Stay out of my neighborhood or you’ll be answering to this one suburban mom. And you’d be WISHING for those 7 cops back.
Fenris, PunditLisa, would you mind?
We don’t know anything about what happened to WildestBill other than what he told himself. So let’s not assume he is some road-raging maniac. I personally have received multiple tickets for one incident as well. Speeding (130 km/h in a 120 km/h zone on highway), insulting an officer (actually: questioning his readings, as I was doing 125 on my speedo. He never had to back it up, just his verbal was enough), and faulty equipment (upon inspection, the front indicator light was broken). Three separate tickets. Am I a road raging idiot?
I have to apologize for that thread I started here a couple weeks ago- I think you’re real.
And you are, without a doubt, one of my favs here.
Coldfire:
You also didn’t have seven police officers involved in getting you to stop to the point that they ran you off the road. You’re right, we don’t know anything other than what Wildest Bill told us, and he told us that in the opinion of at least eight police officers he was driving like a jackass.
Based on the story as described, I am inclined to agree.
No. But I also understood your description of the situation.
Bill’s makes no sense and that’s why I’m asking for clarification, given his…um…communication issues.
We know he was revving his engine and spinning his wheels (“but not a whole lot”), presumably at a stop sign. That implies he was stopped, and if he was spinning his wheels, he’s gonna shoot out from that stopsign like a jackrabbit. We know that a drunken cop tried to play chicken. We know he swerved, somehow passing through two seperate stop signs during one swerve (like I said, short blocks?). We know that the first thing the cops did, once they caught him is frisk him for weapons (I’ve never been frisked for weapons when I’ve gotten a traffic ticket), which strongly implies that the cops thought he was dangerous or he “mouthed off” to them. We know that the cops told(!!!) WB that they knew that their drunken cop buddy drove him off the road and didn’t stop the drunken cop, even to take him home!
There are asshole cops. There are stupid cops. There are petty, sadistic, power-hungry cops. But I can’t imagine any cop, even ones that are in all three of the above catagories, letting their drunken, aggressive buddy continue to drive, during the lunch-hour rush. (I can see them getting him off the road and not giving their pal a ticket) and I certainly can’t see ALL FOURTEEN COPS (two per car x 7 cars) telling WB “Yeah, we know that you were almost run off the road by a psychotic drunk. Hey! Did you know he’s a cop! Kewl, huh?”
I’m not questioning that he got multiple tickets. I don’t dismiss the possibility that they may be undeserved. But judging from the way Bill described the situation, I am questioning the events that led up to the tickets.
Fenris
In my city they would not have each cop writing out tickets. They would call the supervisor or the Captain & ask him to come down & sort it all out. Then the supervisor would write out the ticket. The other officers would be keeping an eye on the person or put him in the back of the patrol car.
You see, when you have a lot of tickets, then each ticket requires it’s own appearance date on it & they would only want one date, so one ticket. But more than likely here they would want to take the person to the station for a better look.
Ahhh, but you see, the cops DIDN’t say the swerving cop was drunk. Only WB did:
In other words, the guy wasn’t a drunk driver, he was a cop trying to get WB to stop, as he was ignoring all the cops behind him.
He told us he was burning rubber. He told us he had to be forced off the road by a cop. He told us he was “kinda getting it on.” He told us he got his “wildest” knickname from his driving habits.
I think he told us enough.
Coldie, I stand by my remarks. Especially when the last line of the OP reads: “you other hot rodders I would appreciate y’all’s advice on what to do.”
Golly, Bill. :eek: Well, of course, the first thing that popped into MY mind when I read this was to wonder whether you’ve been taking those steroids to get buff, like you were talking about.
Well? Driving a teeny bit more aggressively lately, are we, hmm?
I have a nasty suspicious mind, I know. 
Given Bill’s description, I think it’s rather implausible that the car coming at him was a cop trying to force him off the road because he didn’t notice the ones behind him. What sort of police protocol involves sending an unmarked car swerving into the path of an oncoming car and then continuing onward? Especially for running stop signs and filing to signal. That explanation doesn’t make any more sense than Bill’s. I think we need a bit more info before condemning Bill for anything other than spinning his wheels, which he admitted to.
I have some advice: Don’t speed in Nevada. Not even a little. I was with my fiancee on I-80 near Lovelock, and we got pulled over for going 87 in a 75 zone. Apparently 12 miles over is a $250 fine, so the cop was “nice” and wrote the ticket up as 10 miles over, and we only paid $90. Gee thanks. And then, later that same evening near some sagebrush and flat terrain, a semi tailgated us and then cut us off, and then we get pulled over again for driving too close to the truck with our highbeams on. I still think the trucker radioed the cop cause he didn’t like that we weren’t driving over 75 while we were in front of him. One of the cops gave me a hard time cause he thought I might have escaped one of the state pens they have out there in the middle of all the sagebrush. After all that we realized the highbeams didn’t do much good anyway, cause the highway was absolutely straight and flat and there was nothing to see.
I’m too wondering if he was involved in a chase and didn’t know it.
Many years ago, I got in the habit of stealing gas and pocketing my gas money. I didn’t buy gas for well over a month. Well, one time when leaving the rural gas station I just filled up at the funky wiring in my car betrayed me by making my horn honk suddenly. I sped off down a back road, and I’m assuming several people turned to see who was honking and somone got my plate.
Well, I drive about 3 miles down that road at my typical high speed, go about 4 down another, cut through a Wal-Mart parking lot (it was a shortcut), go pick up my friends, and we drive in to Dallas, about 50 miles away. We come back several hours later and my parents are pissed at me, a highway patrolman came by and told them about me stealing gas, my parents paid the gas station and arranged for me to write them an apology, and no charges were filed. It was all taken care of. Me and my friends go out to sit in the parking lot of the apartment complex and have a smoke.
We aren’t sitting out there 5 minutes before four patrol cars and two unmarked cars screech up in front of us, and a shitload of cops, some uniformed, some plainclothes, come boiling out. They pat me and my friends down and one of them asks me if I have been drinking tonight. No sir. Have you been stealing any gas? Yes sir, but my father took care of it. They call in on the radio, verify it, and I get an explanation. Apparently the highway patrolman was in the area and saw me fleeing the seen and chased me, but I lost him when I cut through the Wal-Mart parking lot. He radioed ahead to the city police that he was in pursuit of me and I was heading in their direction. He then found out my address from the plates and went and talked to my parents. He neglected to inform the police that I was no longer a wanted suspect, and they had been looking for me for the last 5 hours or so, and apparently somebody in the apartment complex was keeping an eye out for me, which explained why they were able to show up on the scene so quickly.
But that’s Bill’s explaination! In his own words:
and
I agree it makes no sense, which is why I’m asking WB for clarification. Bill, if you do respond, please do so without using pronouns. I think it’d make the situation much clearer.
Fenris
First, thanks to coldfire, waterj2 and other dopers that came to my defense. Sheesh, I hope the other dopers that want to nail me are sick when it comes to jury duty for my case.
Now to try to clarify some things. Waterj2 got it exactly right. The cop(in the unmarked car was not drunk) he was trying to cut me off as waterj2 said. I just said he(the cop in the unmarked car)was drunk to the cop writing me the tickets. I think it was highly dangerous what that cop did especially in a unmarked car. I will definetely be using that in my trial.
I did spin my tires a couple of times but not a whole lot (no tire smoke in otherwords). The cop that saw me do this was not able to get me so he radio’d another cop to get me. Then he showed up later to write the tickets. I guess all the other cops were bored that day so they thought they would all join in to get me too. The cop in the unmarked car that tried to run me off the road was just joining in the fun. This happended close to downtown that is why there were so many cops around I guess.
I did NOT RUN THOSE TWO STOP SIGNS. I even went back and got a witness that saw me stop. That cop just plained out lied about that and he knows he did. Because when I brought it up he yelled at me, “DO YOU WANT TO GO TO JAIL!?” So I shutup and let the power tripping cop write out the rest of the tickets. Jail sux ya’ know.
I can’t remember if I used my signals to change lanes or not. I do think that is a lame ass ticket(got two of these btw). I see cops not use their signals all the time. Why should they give me a ticket for that when they don’t do themselves.
They did check me for guns and told me to keep my hands out of my pockets(like I am going to try to stab them for writing me tickets :rolleyes: ) probably because in their minds I was trying to outrun them. I pulled over as soon as I saw the cop in my rearview mirror though.
I do want to say there was a cool cop there that was nice and told me to say yes sir and no sir (I was already doing that) to the mean cop so he wouldn’t throw me in jail for reckless driving.
The lawyer that I hired turned out to be $750 :eek: but I guess it will be worth it if he is successful. And I never said I didn’t like criminal attorneys. I mean if you are going to have cops that lie, you need someone to lie for you right? 
Bill, most people don’t stab cops because the cop is writing them a traffic ticket. They stab (and shoot) cops because they are wanted for something else and they realize that the cop will soon find this out. The cop has no way of knowing who you are or how you will react. So they act defensively by telling you to keep your hands out of your pocket.
BTW, you may not have deserved the tickets for running through a stop sign, but are an admitted “hot rodder.” My advice is that if you want to avoid future tickets, and the notice of your friendly neighborhood policemen, then quit squealing your tires through their district.