Re: Speeding Ticket
I decided to fight a ticket and go to court. I am in SoCal and they treat tickets the same as any crime.
First came the assistant DA. He tried to get me to plea bargain. "Just admit you're guilty and I'll reduce your fine to $25 and it won't go on your record as speeding." This is one of the ways the DA gets to claim a high percentage of cases won.
After declining, I was told to sit in the court until the judge called my case. I wound up sitting for most of the day, but I truly felt it was a bogus ticket. I scanned the court to see if the CHiP officer was there. They are the DAs prime witness. A no show by them will drop the charge. There were a number of officers but I couldn't recognize him.
I watched as each case came up. About 1/3 were dismissed because the officer did not show. I noticed a trend in all the cases that went before the judge. NEVER EVER ADMIT GUILT. Not even a little. You can say "I don't believe I exceeded the posted limit" Bring any info (owner's guide) that shows that the spoiler will deploy at around 60. Tell the judge the spoiler did not deploy therefore you could not be going 65. You may have to "cross examine" the officer. If he lies, that is perjury. The key is that no spoiler deployed then the speed the officer recorded is wrong. You can also ask the method he determined your speed. If he used radar or his speedometer, ask when they were last calibrated and ask them to show you the report. They probably won't have it to submit. Those should get the case dismissed. Any error entered on the ticket gives the judge grounds to dismiss.
I watched as defendant after defendant would slip and say something like "I was a little over...maybe I did go over the limit, but not by much...maybe I rolled thru the stop sign, but everybody does that..." etc. They all were found guilty. I also saw a number of people badgered by the DA and gave in to a "possibility" they did do the infraction, all of them were found guilty.
I saw many obviously guilty individuals get off making a good argument and NOT admiting guilt. They all had their cases dismissed.
BTW I was ready to fight the ticket and brought a receipt for fixing my speedometer (I was on the freeway and all of the other cars were pulling away from me. I asked the officer if he noticed that and he said "yeah, but I stopped you!" In court when my name was called I had my receipt and was prepared to not admit guilt to anything. As I went to sit in front of the judge, the ADA stood and asked the charges be dropped because the officer was not present. I almost objected and caught myself before blunting out "...you tried to get me to plea bargain, you knew the officer was not present but you made me waste a day in court! I demand my right of trial!" Instead I just smiled and let the judge drop the charges and said "Thank you."
Last edited by SRT SIX; Feb 14, 2007 at 04:21 AM.