Is there any way I can beat this traffic ticket?

Factual Questions
21

If he doesn’t show, yeah, the judge’ll throw it out. However, from my experience, cops almost always do show up to court.

The best chance for the OP is to show up to court, and hope the judge offers a supervision option. At least in Cook County, you can pay a fine and not get the offense reported on your driving record if you don’t commit another traffic offense in the next 6 (or is it 12?) months?

This is what I did when I supposedly rolled a stop. I had the same experience as the OP. Had no idea why I was being pulled over, but I don’t think the officer had any angle to judge. I swear I came to a complete stop, even took pictures and was going to fight it in court. However, when the judge offered everyone the chance to plead guilty/not guilty, or ask for supervision, I decided to play it safe, ask for supervision, and get the hell out of court.

22

That sounds odd. I have not heard of arraignments for civil offenses. I have only been in traffic court once for a moving violation (and twice for parking tickets) but the whole thing was done right then & there, start to finish. It seems a waste of everyone’s time to have multiple appearances for traffic violations.

I’m sure there is some variation on this but I don’t think a statement from your own passenger and especially not a passenger to whom you are married would be considered objective by the court; she has a direct interest in an acquittal.

I was stopped for a rolling stop in Ann Arbor in 1979. The cop condescended to give me a lesson in traffic signage. He said, “Mr. Gas, do you know what ‘stop’ means?”

I said, trying not to roll my eyes, “It means come to a complete stop at the sign. . . .”

He said, “Mr. Gas, ‘stop’ means a ‘complete cessation of motion.’”

I did not have the gall to tell him that “cessation” was an absolute and so the phrase was redundant.

23

As I heard a cop say once:
You ever go fishing?

You ever catch all the fish?

24

I met a woman who presented such a defense in traffic court. The judge just said, “Big net, one fish. Guilty. Next case.”

25

So, how does

0 < # of wheels moving < 4 work?

I know once my pal drove my car backwards with the emergency brake on, and the rolling front wheels were basically pushing the non-rolling braked rear wheels along. So the back wheels weren’t rolling, but they were moving. :confused:

26

Be aware that in some places, like here, if you take it to court and don’t just take the reduced fine they offer at the very beginning, you may pay up to twice as much in court costs if you don’t have it thrown out. It’s not necessarily just a “nothing to lose” sort of thing.

27

Inside the bond book (a little book that tells what the statute number and fine is for an offense) there is a list of 3 or 4 initial appearance court dates. Each one also has a future trial date. The officer puts the court date on the ticket that works best for him. The citing officer doesn’t appear at the initial hearing, but does at trial. 99.9% of officers show up for trials.

I guess it would be nice, but I’ve rarely seen a judge throw out a clear violation just because the offender had an otherwise clean record. In fact, I’ve seen judges tougher on good drivers and softer on bad drivers who are in danger of losing their license. Go figure.

:confused:Where the heck are you? Since when does the public defender deal with minor traffic cases? Usually one has to be found indigent before the P.D. is allowed to talk to you. Are you sure it wasn’t a private attorney walking around doing that? Or an Assistant District Attorney trying to clear out his case load?

teh. I knew an officer who pulled a guy over for a rolling stop. He kept yammering “but I slowed down!” And the officer told him “But you didn’t stop”.
And he kept saying “but I slowed down!” And the officer would say "but you didn’t stop. It’s a stop sign!’ And this guy would keep snapping at him “But I slowed down!”
So the cop pulled him out of the car and started striking him with his baton: WAM! WAM! WAM! Until he was a bloody pulp. "Now, do you want me stop beating you, or do you want me to slow down?!!"

It’s just a joke, folks. :smiley:

28

Yeah, I was pretty shocked myself. But I watched him do it. It’s also possible it’s that specific judge and not a circuitwide thing. He didn’t even review the tickets or allow people to speak on their own behalf. If someone started to explain, he would tell them to shut up. Then he explained that today was not the day for explainations and if they wanted to defend or contest the ticket, they need to plead not guilty and come back later to defend it. All he wanted to here was “guilty” “not guilty” or “no contest”. Pretty damn efficient actually.

It’s probably not called “arraignment” and there’s probably some technical legal differences, but it’s an initial appearance and it serves a similar purpose. It makes a lot of sense because a lot of people just want to plead no contest anyway. So why supoena 80 officers when 70 of those tickets will be plead no contest. It saves the city money and doesn’t wastes the officers’ time.

Also, I hear that in Georgia (specifically in Atlanta) that if the officer doesn’t show up to court, they reschedule your court date. Damn, that’s fucked up. I dont know if it’s accurate though.

29

An officer came up to me while I was carrying a refridgerator down a sidewalk and started screaming at me about running a stop sign. I put the refridgerator in the back of a truck and asked him, are you sure it was me? I have been moving my girlfriend out of an apartment. He said, are you back talking me? Do you want to get arrested son??? I said, no. He wanted my drivers license and my insurance. I didn’t have my insurance because I didn’t have my car there, I hadn’t been driving. So he gives me a ticket for running a stop sign on TWO PARALLEL streets. I am like, well, I have got him now.

So I went to court.

It was a justice of the peace type deal, and I explained to the lady what had happened, as the cop was sitting across the table, glaring at me. My witnesses sat there explaining their side of the story, the cop and the prosecutor glaring at them as well. The judge looked like she was balancing her check book. At the end, she looked up to me like she didn’t care if I lived or died and said, “Do you have anything else you would like to say?” I said, no ma’am. She said “Guilty.” and instructed me towards the clerk lady. I told the clerk lady what had happened and she told me that the officer and the judge were talking about my case before I had gotten there and that they were laughing about it. She told me to fill out a form to request that my case be brought before county court.

So I got a lawyer free from my college.

The lawyer went into the office of the county judge, and my ticket went away. So did the cop. I don’t know what happened to the judge biotch though.

It could be worse for you, so watch out what happens in court.

30

Hi, pkbites. Nice to have you on the boards.

Gabriela

31

A friend of mine just got done taking a very similar ticket to court although I believe it was for running a stop light (which he says he didn’t do).

He went to court, was well prepared (He had timed the various lights at that intersection, downloaded photos of the intersection, presented a chart that showed where he was, where the streets were, etc) and had a lawyer.

In spite of all that the basic attitude of the court was “If the officer says you did it, you did it. NEXT!”

They did cut his fine in half, but I’ve had similar success with that just by talking with the DA on the day of court, and it didn’t involve flow charts. :slight_smile:

32

I was a long haul trucker for over 23 years. I had at least two speeding fines cut in
half just by writing a letter to the court, explaining the circumstances.
I don’t think that most insurance companies will raise your rates for one moving violation. If you get two
or three in a 3-5 year period then I’m pretty sure they will.
I also had a citation for not having a current certification (a technical thing) from the state of Oregon.
The renewal costs $10.00 and I had overlooked mailing it. The fine was around
$350.00. I wrote a letter to the court, explaining that I had simply failed to send the
renewal and, while I expected to pay a penalty, I thought the fine was exorbitant in comparison w/ the
renewal fee.
To my surprise I rec’d. a reply stating that the charge had been dismissed, based on
a misspelling in the original citation??

33

I wouldn’t bring that up if I were you. It will not help your case and will probably earn you a corny joke like “Tell me, have you ever been fishing and caught ALL the fish?”

34

Speaking just for myself, I make it a policy not fuck with anybody that is carrying a refridgerator.

::: Writes down Translucent Daydream’s name in the book under the heading Don’t fuck with this guy:::

35

Tell me, have ever been reading a post and missed all the…

never mind.

36

I agree about not mentioning quotas, and not alleging selective enforcement. It’s irrelevant and will not kindly dispose the judge or magistrate towards you. And yes, “come to a complete stop” means just that.

In Cleveland, if an officer cites you for running a stop sign, you’ll receive a ticket which acts as a summons to come to court for your arraignment about two weeks later. At your arraignment, you’re asked how you wish to plead. You may plead “no contest” and make an explanation - which may, depending upon your persuasiveness and apparent sincerity, lead to a “not guilty” verdict or at least a reduced fine. The great majority of people plead “no contest,” get a fine and are sent on their way. The officer is not expected to appear at the arraignment.

If you enter a “not guilty” plea, your case is randomly assigned by the Clerk of Court’s docketing computer to one of the judges for a later hearing. You are not entitled to counsel, under Ohio law, for most traffic offenses, although some (DUI, driving under suspension, no drivers license) do carry the potential - however unlikely - for jail time, so you are entitled to counsel for them. When you come before the judge, the prosecutor will speak to you or your attorney, and will often offer to reduce the charge to an offense that won’t carry points against your license (such as unsafe motor vehicle, even though it’s usually a legal fiction). If you have a bad driving record, you may be offered a less-attractive plea or no plea bargain at all.

Officers fail to appear for trial in about a quarter of all traffic cases in our court, I’d say. All of those cases are dismissed unless it’s a high-level misdemeanor, in which case the court may very well permit the prosecutor to have a continuance to ensure the officer’s attendance.

I typically impose the maximum fine ($150) for failure to stop. Far too many drivers ignore stop signs and traffic lights around here, and every year far too many people are killed in intersection collisions.

However, I’m sure you’re a careful driver, Shoeless, and don’t mean to suggest otherwise!

37

There is no such thing as a quota on tickets. The cops are allowed to write as many tickets as they want.

38

Not necessarily true. Depends on the jurisdiction but they can still be out there. Here is just one such instance:

39

You’ve admitted guilt when you say

Some places are very hard on people who roll stops. Sorry…the ticket is yours. Better luck next time.

40

Ha ha ha… it was one of those little jobs that you can put beer and stuff in. 4.3 cubic feet.

But you can keep me in the book if you want! :smiley: