[Shotimes] OT: Help! Unfair traffic ticket!

[Steve Weinrich]

The cop is an "Officer of the Court" and as such his/her word is Gospel in
front of the judge or magistrate.

If this is a small municipality and the state of Utah permits such entities
to use cop's ticket books as a primary source of revenue, you are toast.

Nothing like trying to teach the kids to respect officers of the law while a
few of those same officers are using the badge and ticket book as a revenue
generating tool.

Unless you have incontrovertible evidence that he/she is lying, you are
toast if you try to get into a situation where it is your word against that
of the cop.

Your only hope is to create a "reasonable doubt" , perhaps the cop's view
was obstructed by a box of Krispy Kremes or something.

Steve

----- Original Message -----
From: <alfitz@alfitz.com>
To: "_SHOTIMES II" <shotimes@autox.team.net>; "Christian Kesselring"
<ckesselring@sisna.com>
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 3:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] OT: Help! Unfair traffic ticket!


> The chances of you winning are so remote you might as well just pay the
> fine.
> This will boil down to your word against the cops word and you don't stand
a
> chance.
>
> Cops lie all the time, but the judge will side with him.
>
> Al Fitzgerald
> alfitz@alfitz.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christian Kesselring" <ckesselring@sisna.com>
> To: "Shotimes" <shotimes@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 2:57 PM
> Subject: [Shotimes] OT: Help! Unfair traffic ticket!
>
>
> > Today, I got a ticket in my SHO for an "improper lane change", and I am
> > furious about it.  This cop in an unmarked, untagged CV pulled me over
and
> > accused me of making several lane changes without signalling.  The
signal
> is
> > working...he checked.  What pisses me off is that I know I signalled, as
I
> > do every single time, so this a**hole had to be either mistaken or
making
> it
> > up.  I admit, I was driving fairly aggressively, and that is probably
why
> he
> > pulled me over.  For him to cite me for something I didn't even do, or
> > rather not doing something I did do, is ludicrous.  Of course, I will go
> to
> > court, but what approach should I take?  Obviously, I am going to plead
> "Not
> > Guilty", does that automatically disqualify me from any bargaining?  I
am
> > not going to plead "Guilty" to something I know I didn't do!  This isn't
> one
> > of those "Well, I'm not sure how fast I was going" things, I am dead
sure.
> > What I really want to happen is to walk into the courtroom, explain that
I
> > did not do what the officer said I did, and walk out with the ticket
> > dismissed.  But how do I do that?  Geez, this sucks.  Oh, and by the
way,
> > this was in Midvale, UT.
> >
> > Christian Kesselring
> > '92 SHO 119k
> > '02 PT Cruiser 9k
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