Friday night my wife and I were going out for dinner. As we pulled into the restaurant parking lot, a cop pulled in behind me with his light flashing. Neither my wife or I could figure out what he was pulling me over for – my wife thought maybe I had a tail light out or something. The cop tells me that I ran a stop sign at an intersection about two blocks from the restaurant.
Here’s a description of the intersection. It’s a four way intersection where north and south bound traffic have stop signs, and east / west traffic does not. Apart from the stop signs, there are also large signs for north and south traffic clearly stating “Cross traffic does not stop”. I was traveling south and made a right turn at the intersection. To the best of my recollection, I approached the intersection, slowed to a stop, looked for traffic coming from the east and west, saw nothing, and proceeded with my right turn.
The cop said I failed to stop at the stop sign. I asked him to define failure to stop, and described how I approached the intersection pretty much as I just described it above. The cop’s response was that all four wheels of the vehicle did not come to a complete stop. He also said that he doesn’t pull over every car that doesn’t come to a complete stop at the intersection, but apparently he made an exception for me. (Admittedly, I probably did not stop completely, but could not have been going more than 1 or 2 mph. It’s not like I slowed down to 10mph and then breezed on through. I grew up in St Louis and am plenty familiar with the rolling stop, and this was definitely not one of those. And I would have come to a complete stop if I had seen any vehicles approaching from any of the other three directions. But there was nothing.)
Talking about this over dinner, my wife thinks that since it was the last day of the month, the cop was probably being overly picky in order to meet his ticket quota. I asked her if she would appear in court with me as a witness but unfortunately she is going to be out of town the week of my court appearance. So basically it’s my word against the cop – in other words I’m screwed. The fact that I have absolutely no experience in traffic court doesn’t help me here either .
It’s not just having to pay the fine that aggravates me, it’s the fact that my insurance will probably go up because of this too. If it was something that I clearly felt I had done wrong and deserved a ticket for, I would have no problem accepting the consequences. I just think this is BS. So, any suggestions for fighting this?
Many cops are too busy with more important cases to show up for a traffic ticket hearing. If the cop don’t show, insist on you rights–the officer is your accuser, & under the Constitution, you have a right to confrony him in court. If he don’t show, politely insist the judge throw it out.
Also, try & re-schedule the hearing for the day before or day after a 3 day holiday weekend. If the cop gets the 3 days off, he may add a leave day. If so, he won’t show, & as above.
If the cop does show, be polite, but firm–you did not violate the law. Point out to the judge about the end of the month thing, & if you have a good driving record, point that out, too. He may go for it; if not, you’re no worse off than before.
INAK…the following is just from my experience with traffic court.
My guess is you are stuck with the ticket.
First off nothing less than an unequivocal, under oath, statement by you in court that you did come to a complete stop will even have a chance of getting you out of the ticket. Saying, “I mostly came to a stop and was going really, really slow,” will not cut it. The law is not ambiguous here and even if it takes an overly picky police officer to ticket you for slowing to 1 mile per hour the bottom line is it is still breaking the law.
Second you have to deal with the “your word versus the cop’s word”. Since you will have no witness when it comes to the officer’s word versus yours as the only evidence my experience is the court sides with the officer.
You also might consider that the police might have a video of the whole event. I do not know if the police by you have a camera in their cruisers and under what circumstances they turn them on and whether for such an offense if they’d even bother bringing the video to court but something to think about.
All of that said you might still try going to court and throw yourself on their mercy. I have done this several times for moving violations. I dressed nicely (jacket and tie) and politely pleaded guilty (once I pleaded innocent because I really thought I was…brought photos in and everything but I was still found guilty). More often than not the judge not only reduced my fine but struck the offense from my record. He’d say something like, “$50 fine, it doesn’t go on your record…next!” There is no guarantee they’ll be nice about it but it might be worth a shot.
The definition of “stop” that I was taught in the police academy (and, admittedly, this was going on 25 years ago) was “the total & complete cessation of any movement”
So technically (under that description) you are guilty. Whether that officer was bored, hadn’t had any activity for a while, has a quota, was just being picky, etc. I know not.
I’d get a notorized affidavit from your wife, simple stating that her recollection is that you stopped. Leave out the end of the month, ouota thing, it’s more likely to tick off the judge than to add any credance to your testimony. Just say you stopped and made sure the way was clear, always do as your not in the habit of risking your life to save a few seconds.
Well, that’s it right there. I don’t know where you got the idea that you don’t have to actually STOP as long as you’re going slower than someone else might have, but the law is you have to STOP - not go really, really, slow, but STOP.
Maybe the cop was being pickier than usual for whatever reason, but you don’t know that for an absolute fact, and it doesn’t change the fact that you did violate the law (I don’t why **Bosnia thinks otherwise - maybe he doesn’t understand what “stop” means, either).
My suggestion is, if your jurisdiction allows, engage a lawyer and have it plea-bargained to a non-moving violation. You’ll pay more than the fine for this service, but get no points on your record and no insurance rate hike, making it a bargain.
I agree with Whack-A-Mole. Best thing to do is go there, look as honest and forthright as possible, and hope for the best. The judge may give you a chance to speak. More likely, and I’ve been in traffic court occasionally, he will be moving through everyone as efficiently as possible. Sometimes there are 60 people there at once. Many small courts hold traffic court only a couple times a week.
Chances are extremely high that if you have little to no prior record the judge will not put it in there, give you a fine for taking up the court’s time, and send you on your way. But you won’t escape without paying at least $50, I’d say.
And I second not telling him about the quota! To be honest, are you even sure your county has quotas? I know many places don’t allow them, specifically for this reason. Many of the counties around here don’t. And he may look askance at you bringing it up.
Advice: In most jurisdictions taking it to court will not result in any more of a fine, and could result in less (no points added, for instance). But you should check on this.
It sounds like your defense is as you stated: To the best of your recollection you slowed to a stop, looked for oncoming traffic, then proceeded.
I don’t know that the testimony of your wife is anything the court would consider, as she’s bound to be on your side or so they will think. But if she wants to swear out a statement, again it doesn’t sound like it would hurt.
The fact that you have no experience in traffic court probably doesn’t hurt you at all. I have a lot of experience in traffic court, unfortunately! The bad kind. I am not a lawyer; I am a leadfoot. But I’m lucky. About 3/4 of the time the cops who wrote me the tickets did not show up. So I won.
Dang, I have to reach absolute zero every time I see a stop sign? That’s really gonna be rough on my radiator. Has anybody told these people that it’s not possible to actually do that in the real world? And the freezer burn on long trips has to be a pain.
Seriously tho, just suck it up and pay the ticket. It sounds like you did a really slow rolling stop like most reasonable people do in this situation, and got picked out by a picky cop possibly reaching his quota. Happens to all of us eventually.
You have no defense. You even admit that you committed the offense. However, if you can afford the time off, I would recommend taking it to court and pleading No Contest.
I dont know how it works in your area, but the district here works like this:
Your first appearance in court is just an arraignment. That’s where you plead to the offense of the ticket. The cop doesn’t show up to this and he isn’t even subpoened unless you plead Not Guilty.
Plead No Contest and the Judge opens a sealed envelope containing your driving history. If you have zero offenses in the last 3 or 5 years, then he throws out the charge. No fine, no points. If you have one offense, then he reduces the fine and withholds points as long as you go to driving school. If you have 2 or more tickets in your past, he adjudicates you guilty, charges you the fine for the ticket and adds court costs. Plus you have the points assessed.
If you plead not guilty there is ZERO chance of an officer not showing up for court. They must show up and they can lose their job if they dont!
If you have a great driving record, just take it to court and see what happens. But don’t try to argue or fight it in court, you WILL LOSE. Just go in front of the judge and plead no contest. It might get thrown out, or at least get reduced.
Thanks for all the responses. I’m surprised that so many latched on to my admission of guilt (that I probably didn’t come to a *complete * stop) but no comments regarding the cops remark that “I don’t pull over everyone that doesn’t come to a complete stop.” It sounds to me like he is applying the law arbitrarily, not consistently.
Bear_Nenno’s advice to plead no contest sounds like my best shot. My last ticket was probably about five or six years ago (which, oddly enough, I paid instead of contesting in court because I was going to be out of town on my court date, and didn’t know that you could ask to have the court date moved) and before that, over 20 years ago when I was in college. And like I said, I’m more concerned about the points going on my record than the fine.
I don’t know if this option is available in your area, but I was recently stopped for speeding and the charge was 2 points on my license and a $190 fine. I went to court and paid an additional $250 to have it wiped from my record and ended up with no points from the offense.
It was a little painful on my pocketbook, but if I had ended up with the points, my insurance would have gone up and the resulting increase in premium would have ended up costing me more in the long run.
In court, the public defender came around to everyone in the courtroom who was there on a traffic stop and made this offer. Most took it.
If you’re worried about the points and your municipality offers this option, maybe you should consider it.
Well, that’s their choice, unfortunately. Such is the real world. But if you do repeat that in the court, the judge will probably :dubious: and punish you. Another part of the real world, unfortunately.
The cops have most if not all of the power in a case like this, and as someone else said, if he was recording it, then he just has to show it.
Good luck. I hope it gets busted down to a seatbelt violation or some such.
Now, if you could show that the officer, or his department, was applying the law in a discriminatory fashion forbidden by law – pulling over black drivers but giving the white drivers a pass - you might have something. But the mere fact that not everyone is ticketed is absolutely no defense against YOUR ticket. You did what he’s accusing you of doing. He saw you do it. That gives him the probable cause necessary to charge you, and when he testifies it will give a court a sufficient record to convict you.
I would guess that no cop can stop EVERY person he sees committing a minor infraction. It’s just not possible.
Have you ever done something - speeding, say - where you passed a cop with his radar gun out and yet you didn’t get flagged down? That was arbitrary too.
And a cop will have to prioritise her workload just like the rest of us - she may feel her time is better spent on something else than pulling over every driver who doesn’t come to a stop.
Extreme example: a cop on the way to an armed robbery won’t stop mid-route and ticket someone for having a tail-light out.
Your only hope is to go to court to fight it and hope thr cop either doesn’t show, makes an error/omission in his accusing testimony that causes the judge to throw out the case, or that the police department is in the mood to make deals.
I’ve had all three happen to me. What’s certain, though, is you are at their mercy. Even if he were lying through his teeth (which from the sound of things he wasn’t) he’ll be believed , as you have no hard evidence against his testimony.
Such is the real world. But if you do repeat that in the court, the judge will probably :dubious: and punish you. Another part of the real world, unfortunately.