Question for all of the LEO's here...

[jayflash]

Fight it!

Been there several times in my 40 years of driving. I've won or had charges reduced often enough to have made it worthwhile beyond just defending myself.

Lot's of good advice was given, here. If we won't fight injustices, however small, we shouldn't expect someone else to protect us. Your effort may prevent future "mistakes." Good luck.

 

[Wattnot]

Fight it . . . unless you really do think he saw you when you WERE using it.

It's not going to be TV law show conspiracy stuff. Just tell your story, which sounds good to me (so it should sound at least okay to a judge). There's no second "grassy knoll" cellphone to worry about. They won't bring that up and they won't bring up if you were driving or not 15 min earlier UNLESS the ticket mentions that was the time you were observed. You might have been in Starbucks 15 minutes ago.

It's always worth fighting the ticket . . . especially if you have a shred of a case. More people need to do this. I don't know about your area, but if it's like mine, cities and townships are issuing more and more tickets to supplement income. If everyone fights, even if they're guilty as hell, the cops will eventually stop the harrasment pullovers because it will cost them MORE to go to court. They count on people avoiding the hassle and just paying by mail.

I would fight it.

 

[Diesel_Bomber]

Definitely fight it, sounds like you've got a decent chance to win. If you don't fight it then you have no chance to win.

It is possible to talk an LEO out of giving you a ticket or reducing it on the side of the road. Courtesy and respect above all else. Some LEO's know they're writing questionable tickets(Once got pulled over for doing 25 in a 25 zone; "Well, we expect people to do 20 through here.), and have let me go upon finding out that I'll be fighting the ticket and that a judge will hear the case. Again, I was completely respectful and courteous.

Good luck. :buddies:

 

[f22shift]

Generally when you plead not guilty to something in court here AND the officer isn't there you'll have to come back several times before your case is ultimately dismissed. I received a ticket for cycling on the sidewalk in 1999 and initially pleaded not guilty. The officer didn't show. I figured it would be dismissed then and there. Not so. I was given another date by the judge. I asked the the court officer about this and he said I would have come back two or three more times. If the officer didn't show at all only then would the ticket be dismissed. I ended up changing my plea to guilty because my time was worth more than the fine (and if the officer showed up next time I would lose my case anyway, and probably get 10 times the fine because I had initially pleaded not guilty). Nowadays I might plead not guilty however because cycling on the sidewalk now carries a prison term in addition to a fine. In short, guilty or not just pay the ticket and be done with it since it involves a fine only, not prison time. NY courts are a zoo and the judge probably wouldn't listen to a thing you say as he/she just wants to move along to the next case. The judge I had probably would have called you a smart a$$ if you pulled out your cell phone records, found you guilty, and fined you 5 times what he would have fined you had you just pleaded guilty. Judges here are too volatile and unpredictable to play games, and they're pushed to maximize revenue rather than dispense justice.. Don't plead not guilty unless you have rock-solid evidence, a lot of time to spend in court, AND the judge seems to be in a good mood.

more or less the truth. you will be found guilty and can obviously appeal.

i would think logically on a no point ticket. compare the cost to your convenience.

personaly i would only fight point tix or ones that would be criminal

 

[light_emitting_dude]

Get a bluetooth headset. :nana:

 

[Robocop]

Well of course my reply will be naturally biased towards the officer here for obvious reasons however there are many factors to consider.....

Most places I know of work about the same as far as citations and most people do not know that an officer usually has 12 months to write a citation for a violation. I once saw a citizen driving very fast and running several red lights. I was in my personal vehicle on my way to work and I followed as he ran several cars off the road. I followed him all the way to his work where he must have been late as he quickly exited his car and ran inside.

I did not approach him as I was in my personal vehicle however I did remember the car as well as the driver. Hours later as the place closed up I was waiting outside this time in my patrol car. Yes I wrote him a reckless driving citation 5 hours after the event and he was very angry. He did go to court and yes I was there. His defense was simply to say I was out of line for writing a citation hours after the event and claimed it was not him driving.

The funny part is that on the bottom of the ticket he signed the fine print clearly states an officer has 12 months to issue a citation for any traffic offense witnessed. The idiot lost his license as this was his 3rd reckless citation within 12 months and the roads are much better off now I say.

My point is that if you were indeed guilty the officer may have witnessed you talking on your phone 15 minutes earlier and the citation would still be valid. If this is not the case by all means fight the charge however again if at any time during that trip you were guilty of the offense then they may also have evidence to show this. Almost all departments I know of these days have video cameras and the harassment stops that so many try to show are usually not a good defense if the offense is on video.

The officer does not have to mention the video at the time of the stop and if video does exist it is usually downloaded daily and kept in a log for future use. Believe me they will use it if it exists so again think carefully if you may have been seen using your phone anytime before the actual traffic stop. I would also look closely at patrol cars in your area and see if they indeed do use video cameras. If they do they usually always activate automatically each time the overhead lights are activated and if so you can bet your stop is on video.

With todays technology everything we do is on audio and video and it is honestly very rare to find officers that simply harass people. I know at times some feel they may be a target and yes even feel unfairly accused however again most good departments can usually back up their actions with audio and video proof.

Good luck to you whatever you decide however make sure you at least show up. You may find that this will help you the most as many simply ignore the citation and it quickly turns into a warrant and suspension of license. I have found that many courts are willing to work with defendants if they simply make an effort to show up and present a case.....even if they were in the wrong. Most recent case was a man I wrote for no insurance after he was involved in a wreck. He was guilty no way around it however he later went to court with a plan.....he arrived with receipts showing he had paid for the damages to the other car and also showed where he now had liability insurance. The judge was impressed with his efforts and simply dismissed the 500 dollar citation.

Good luck and let us know how it goes......

 

[RH]

Hi All,

Thanks for all of your advice...sorry for my delay in getting back here. So I had my day in court. At 9am the ADA comes into the court room and begins the session by going over preliminaries. He explains how the day is going to go and what the process is. He explains that if you're there for a speeding ticket and you have a clean driving record, he will most likely offer you a plea to a lesser charge (say 2 points) that should not affect your insurance. At this point, I think I'm home clear. We haven't even begun and he's talking of reducing speeding tickets!

And then he proclaims that there is one offense that he won't make any deals on and that is cell phone violations! He has almost been killed multiple times by people talking on a cell phone and he will not tolerate that. As you can imagine, this is a real mood killer for me.

He then returns to the clerk's office and announces that we will be called in to see the judge (as this is "first court"). As luck would have it, just after his cell phone diatribe, I'm the first one called!

I go in to see the judge and he reads the charge against me. He then asks if I want to plead guilty and pay the fine or if I want a trial. I explained that I was hoping to get to speak with the ADA and see if we couldn't come to an agreement without going to trial. The ADA overheard this and walked in from the clerk's office.

I explained my evidence. I showed him the receipt for my bluetooth headset purchased a year before the incident to show that I own a handsfree device. Fortunately, my headset is a Jabra that uses the disposable gel ear pieces and I showed him the receipt for new gels that were purchased less than a month prior to the ticket. I was hoping that this would show that not only do I own a headset, but I use it as I am purchasing consumables for it.

Next, I pulled out a copy of my call log from that day direct from the phone company showing that I had no calls within 2 hours of my traffic stop. I think he'd heard this before as I didn't even have it out of my mouth when he proffered that maybe I have another cell phone. At this, I showed a letter from my place of employment affirming that I have no company cell phone and that I submit for reimbursement business use of my personal phone.

He paused in light of this new evidence and asked if I have any other tickets for cell phone use in the last couple years. I said no and in fact I have never had a ticket of any kind or an accident for as long as I've been driving. He asked how long I've been driving and I said over 15 years.

At this point, he said that he would like to offer me an extended adjournment. This meant that if I didn't get any other tickets within 6 months, this would be expunged and it would be like it never happened. I said thank you very much!

I'd like to thank everyone for their advice. I think the two main reasons for the adjournment were the fact that I had made every effort to support my case with evidence (receipts, call log, letter from employer) and that I had a clean driving record. Anyway, thanks again and I hope you enjoyed reading this mini-saga.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[RyanA]

Congratulations, and well done.:twothumbs

 

[dudemar]

Congratulations, and well done.:twothumbs

I second that opinion! Very well done.

 

[Optik49]

I am late to this but I just want to say the cell phone call log helped but biggest thing was your driving record.

 

[jtr1962]

I have to say I'm both impressed as well as pleasantly surprised. Good job defending yourself! :twothumbs

 

[tiktok 22]

Way to go...I'm glad you went on to fight this ticket. This is what our justice system is for.

 

[f22shift]

you're well prepared. i say good job

 

[andytheboa]

From my experience with police (i am an EMT) they know almost nothing about the laws they give citations for.

It looks like you have a slam dunk case.