Originally Posted by SRT SIX
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 now 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 individual get off making a good argument and NOT admit 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 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."
Thanks SRT for the write up... learned a lot from this post... and you answered some of my questions along the way.
I have been driving in the states for about 2 years now and have never been ticketed with the exception of parking tickets... There was one occasion where I was driving my lexus in the left lane of a 50 mph zone at about 85... some SUV behind me decides that speed is not fast enough for him goes in the middle lane and attempts to speed by me... we both accelerate to about 100... then I turn around and notice that it is the police... He then yells from the loud speaker "SLOW DOWN"... and just speed by me.
Another time something similar happened again in my lex driving 115 in the left lane of a 65 mph zone some guy is tailgating me, but I do not increase speed... he Then turns on his sirens... I was like F U C K, and pulled over to the shoulder on the left and he just sped by...
There were numerous other times where cops saw me notoriously violating the speed limit, but I have only been pulled over once and the cop was out of it... He must of had a really good night and I talked to him some and he just told me "just get out of here" laughing.
On the other hand I have a few friends who have had their licenses revoked or suspend. One of my friends was driving drunk from NYC cops attempted to pull him over, but he refused and was eventually stopped by road block... this did not end good for him.
One day when I am ticketed for speeding, I am going to go to court and deny the whole thing without budging even if it does not go well for me I am still curious of the results, because I really do not think a cop can prove it in any way... so in the end It is just going to be my word against his.