Topic: I fought the law...

[Stev-o]

...and I won!

A lot of posts recently about speeding/tickets so I thought I would post my story.

About 2 months ago, drove my G35 to the store and on the way back, I see a cop sitting on the side of the road. I immediately think, oh #$%*e! Look down, not going that fast, only 10 over, and there is a BMW slowly passing me on the left.
Watching my mirror, I see the cop pull out, lights flashing and think the Beamer is gonna a get nailed. But the cop never pulls to the left lane and pulls me over.
So he walks up, asks for license and proof of insurance, and says he clocked me for 61/50. I asked him if he saw the blue BMW that was passing me and he answers yes.
And adds, my radar hits the car that is closer, and says he'll be right back.
So I'm thinking he'll check for warrants (no prob, I don't have any) and hopefully give me a warning. Comes back and gives me a ticket! I was mad but knew I couldn't fight it at this point and just took off rather quickly.
Went to the courthouse a few weeks later, plead not guilty and said I wanted to go to court. Planned to postpone my court date a couple times and hope cop doesn't show up, case dismissed?
So the young, hot court clerk sets up a pre court hearing date, I show up to court and speak to the prosecutor in a some conference room. I tell him what happened, tell him I don't want to waste his time or mine, but I was not guilty.
He tells me my options and one of them is I can request to see the video, states that he doesn't know what it will show, but I jump on the offer.
I was scheduled to go back March 30th, meet with him and view the video.
So, last Thurs, driving home from work, wife calls me and asks what this letter is from the court? She totally caught me off guard as I never told her about the ticket to save face and #$%* time! (she's always telling me to slow down!).
The letter states the case has been dismissed due to lack of evidence!!
I could not believe it and was so happy.

I fought the law and I won!!


Anyone else have such luck?

[Really?]

Nice!  Glad to see you off on that one!

I got out on a technicality once and I was clearly in the wrong and the judge knew it and he knew I knew it.

I got pulled over in an old VW baja years ago in Irving.  License and insurance he says.  Well guess what, I had no insurance for some reason at that time.  Yup, I got a no insurance ticket.  When I got home, I called my insurance agent and had the VW added to my policy.

I am standing in front of the judge and he asks If I have insurance, I said yes I do and he asked to see it.  He noticed it started on the same day as the ticket and asked if I got the insurance that day.  Yes sir, I said.  After I got the ticket he says.  Yes sir.

I see it is time stamped for 12:01 am that day.  Yes sir, I said.  He dismissed it on that technicality.

[Really?]

I got out of another one because the ticket said I ran a stop sign.  There was not a stop sign, it was a stop light.

[tweakin]

Great story!  Seems like I never win those battles.

[RupertB]

I used to work on a dedicated enforcement unit (UK) and a friend on an unmarked Pan European followed a 600 of some sort that was two-up as it performed two overtakes on double white lines (absolutely no overtaking allowed) in excess of the 60 limit (up to 80/90 mph in parts) and on a windy stretch of out of town road that is notorious for bike fatals. It ran at about 8 a year at the time, mostly bike related in the spring and summer. He got the whole lot on video and when he stopped the offending bike he ran through what he had seen and left the rider in what can only be called a 'state of some distress' having realised how bad his riding was. He was summonsed for dangerous driving (which carries a minimum 12 month ban and extended retest after the ban, plus a big fine) but kept putting in for adjournments so it was ten months before they all eventually gathered at court to hear the case on a 'not guilty' plea. My friend was approached by the defence solicitor who asked to view the video as he hadn't yet seen previously. God knows why as he would have been sent a copy with all the other evidence after the first 'not guilty plea hearing months earlier. Anyway, when court started he stood up and said 'My client would like to plead guilty to this matter'. The magistrate asked 'why have you delayed this matter for ten months and now we are all here you plead guilty as soon as the trial starts?'
The solicitor said 'That's my fault your worship, you see I hadn't seen the video of this matter until this morning'.
'Video?' said the magistrate. 'Well if the video is available perhaps we'd better see it for ourselves'.
On a quiet guilty plea at first hearing the lad could well have got the minimum ban with a good sob story. Thanks to his 'defence' solicitor he got a 2 year ban and a fine of about 1500 pounds. The moral is to make sure you get a good layer, not just any lawyer!

[72 yellow]

Never had any luck.  When I had a accident with my new 68 Road Runner (old man turned into his driveway in front of me), I got a little upset when he said it was my fault.  I ended up with the ticket because of my behavior when the cops arrived.  I went to court and the judge was dismissing case after case.  Suddenly, the warning sirens went off on city hall and the court officer said something to the judge.  Court was in recess for a few minutes.  When the judge returned he announced the Detroit Tigers had just won the 1968 World Series.  He must have bet on the St. Louis Cardinals a lot, because every one was guilty after that.  He asked me what happened, even showed him on a chart.  When I noticed he was not even paying attention, I stopped talking, he asked why, I said you're not even listening.  He said you're right, $50.00 or 5 days in jail.
2nd time a few years later, I was driving a large dump truck filled with sand and towing a bulldozer.  The light changed and when I applied the brakes, a tire blew out and the rig started to wiggle.  I sounded my horn, made it through the intersection before traffic started to move and stopped.  A cop was sitting there and pulled me over.  He said "Nice driving, you could have overturned if you would have tried to stay on the brakes.  By the way, I'm issuing you a ticket for running a red light."  I asked for a court date.  Cop never showed up, but the judge refused to dismiss the case.  Came back a second time, and the cop still was not there.  The judge said he had all the information he needed to find me guilty.  Nope no luck.

[RupertB]

Try joining the cops - then you'll get really pee'd off when all the crims get away with murder! Grass is always greener on the other side or something like that. Not wanting to be TOO commercial but have you read my epic book? Gives you the view from both sides of the fence. I retired last year by the way, and am building a CB750 special with the absolute legal minimum of everything on it to see if some smart a**e successor wants to play 'Construction and Use Regs' with me. Could be entertaining!

[RustyStuff]

Try joining the cops - then you'll get really pee'd off when all the crims get away with murder! Grass is always greener on the other side or something like that. Not wanting to be TOO commercial but have you read my epic book? Gives you the view from both sides of the fence. I retired last year by the way, and am building a CB750 special with the absolute legal minimum of everything on it to see if some smart a**e successor wants to play 'Construction and Use Regs' with me. Could be entertaining!

I couldent join the cops. I have an aversion to boxing in and running over motorcycleists and chaseing disabled people out of there houses and into lakes to drowned them or shooting homeless people.

Both of which have happened around here.

[RupertB]

So have I - never needed or wanted a gun in nearly 30 years of it! Never chased anyone disabled either, but if they wanted a car chase I wouldn't have discriminated against them! And the only people who ever got injured after any chase I got into was occasionally a cop but usually the chased one - can't ever recall an innocent bystander getting hurt. Mind you now they all get lessons in hugging bad people and any chase gets called off at the first sign if someone not stopping. Sends out quite the wrong message. And you aren't allowed to use a stinger on motorcycles at all. Killjoys! And don't say you wouldn't wish harm on someone who nicked your bike!