Speeding ticket technicality question

I'll let you guys know in 3 1/2 years when I graduate from law school.

 

I got pulled over for 75 in a 55 the other night. When I told the officer to eat me, he gave me a ticket. What a douche.

 

My father used the laws of physics one time to get out of a ticket. He proved to the judge that it was impossible for him to have gone from a complete stop at a stop sign to the speed the police officer said he was going in the distance between the stop sign and where he was pulled over.

 

Yeah, that's pretty hard to fight, too.

The beauty of the red light cameras (from the municipality's perspective) is they don't really have to do anything except cash the checks -- get the camera set up, change the timing of the light (often they'll make the yellow shorter to maximize revenue, even though this causes more rear-end collisions), piss all over the concept of due process and wait for the money to start rolling in.

 

I got a warning once for something similar. I'm pretty sure his radar was picking up the guy in front of me who ran the stop sign, where as I had just turned onto the road. I tried to point that out to him and he told me to stop arguing and I should thank my lucky stars I wasn't getting a ticket.
Sometimes I really dislike cops.

 

Contest it. The cop may not show up.

I've never been so pissed as the day I was found guilty for doing more than 10 mph over the limit in a 25 (honestly can't remember the speed). I was on my way to the hospital to see my sick girlfriend and wasn't concentrating. I was so out of it I didn't even bother tryign to talk my way out of it, but when I contested it, I got a doctor's note. Dressed in my Sunday best and went to court one weekday afternoon months later.

While I'm sitting there, Cletus the Slack-Jawed With Blonde Hair Dyed Black Yokel Wearing A Wife-Beater gets called up to the stand.

"Cletus, you were accused of doing 110 in a 55. How do you plead?"
"Darrrr not guilty yer honer."
"Well your cop isn't here today. Since this is the second time he has not shown up, I'm throwing the case out."

Judge then puts his head down and starts writing out the paperwork. Cletus turns, flashes a barely toothy grin and gives the rest of us law-abiding fucks the thumbs up. Asshole.

A few minutes later I get called up. My cop walks up with me. I get a sinking feeling. I tell the judge my story, present the evidence. Judge asks the cop if I told him of this when I was pulled over. cop says no, but that I was very polite and he wishes I had said something.

Judge tells me I'm a fine young man and that he understands why I was racing down the street, but he has no choice but to find me guilty. He knocks my fine down to the minimum and shakes my hand. It wasn't his fault, but I was so, so pissed.

A few minutes later, I'm in the snack bar stewing and a woman comes up to me. "I can't believe you had to pay and that white trash idiot walked free for driving double the limit in a 55," she says.

I agreed. And then we had sex. OK I made the first part up.

 

Thanks for the input, guys.

I don't have a problem paying it. I was always planning on paying it, but just started to over-think things because it seemed odd that the officer would have written that address down instead of the one that's on my license, registration and insurance card. I should ask my sister - she went through a two-year span where she was pulled over at least four or five times for speeding and walked away from all without a ticket. Actually, check that - knowing her, I don't want to know her methods.

buckweaver, your "providing false information" idea is a good one, and I wouldn't want to see what would happen if that comes out. I can't imagine it would be a pretty sight.

As for the 51 in a 25, it's a long, straight, slightly-inclined four-mile-long connector road between two state roads. I've never been able to understand why in the world the speed limit is 25 on that road, given that there are all of four houses on it, but it's probably just a throwback to the days of long ago and they never changed it. (If I didn't care about outing myself, I'd show you the road on Google Earth. You'd scratch your head, too.)

And again, as I said, it is entirely possible I was going 51, for I was running late for the event. But I've never broken 45 on that road in the past, and cars do occasionally use it to race down.

Anyways, it's all a moot point. It happened and the thing's right here in front of me. I'll give it a day of thought to head to court just for the hell of it or to just pay it. I've got until next Wednesday.

 

For those of you who think the radar was picking up someone other than you, it's impossible. When I was on the cop beat I went along with some speeding enforcement days and the radars they use, in their car and by hand have a laser on them. You can't see it when they're monitoring you, but they know exactly which cars they are seeing speed. The laser is fairly precise and picks up a feature on your car.

They also told me a list of the things that people do to try to keep themselves from being detected. They said some will put a cd on the dash because they think it reflects the radar gun and it doesn't. There was a long list of shit, but I can't think of all of them right now. Pretty fun stuff and if any of you end up on a cop beat and have a chance, go to one of these speed enforcement days or DUI checkpoints. People will get pissed off and ask the cop to tell you to leave, but since it's a public street the cop can only say "he/she has the right to be here. It's a public street and I can't stop them from listening to this conversation or taking pictures of you."

 

Mythbusters did an episode on trying to beat the radar. Nothing worked.

 

Yeah, but you can be damn sure if I later get the ticket thrown out, I'm gonna be beating down that newspaper's door. Not arguing the right to be there. Just saying.

 

Power lines interfere with radar guns. My attorney successfully used that defense for me in court, and then I wrote an article about it. Received many thank-you letters.