Street racing ticket equals a trip to court...
Sep 17, 2006, 08:18 PM
#1
Street racing ticket equals a trip to court...
Sorry this is long but oh what a story 
Earlier this summer I took the EVO out for a cruise and ran into a friend that was stopping over at another friends house on the South side of town. So I stop by and we decide to go to dinner on the North side of town. We drove back from dinner and came from a 40mph zone to a 30mph zone and stop light. The light was red so I proceed to pull up next to my friend's Talon who is in the right lane to see if we were going to cruise for a bit or just head back to my friends house. The light turns green before I could get up next to him even though we had almost come to a complete stop. We both leave the light at moderate speed and I pull in behind him. We travel about a quarter of a mile (five cars all in the same lane) and go to turn the corner and all of a sudden I see red and blues. The cop comes flying around the corner half sideways from the far left lane of traffic half way in to the on coming traffic lane after turning the corner. I pulled over right away. My friend was in the Talon in front of me and pulled over but then realized the cop pulled me over and kept going. The cop kept two of the three cars behind me pulled over and the farthest car back was able to keep going (stock looking Accord). So the cop comes up all strung out and asks how fast I was going, etc. I told him 35mph (it is a 30mph zone) and he is like yeah right. Tells me my exhaust is illegal to which I reply that Buschur sells a similar exhaust through a dealer in Wisconsin. So he has me start it up and says it is illegal. He goes and gives my friends the third degree also. He comes back and tells me that he knows the cars plate in front of me and it is going to be much worse on my friend if I don't give the cop his phone number so I do. At this point the cop tells me that he is giving me a racing on highway ticket and illegal exhaust ticket to the sum of $300 for the racing and $100 for the exhaust. It also ends up being six points. He also gives the two cars behind me both street racing tickets and one of my friends a ticket for no front plate. My other friend he ends up calling on his phone and tells him to come down to the station. So my friend goes down their in a van and he tells him that he isn't talking to him until he goes and gets his car, yadda...yadda. My friend goes and gets his Talon and comes back with a racing on highway, illegal exhaust and illegal tint ticket to the sum of $600 and 8 points.
We go to pretrial and all plead not guilty, talk to the DA. DA doesn't want to dismiss it so we setup a trial date. I thought about getting a lawyer but was like screw it, I will just represent myself. They decide to give us a trial all together. The DA asks the cop a bunch of questions about the events that happened. The cop testifies that he was sitting in an alley by the intersection and that the four of us went through it doing 35mph and then sped up to 50mph based on his observations. He noticed us because our loud exhaust distracted him in the middle of a phone conversation. He said he then pursued us, pulled us over and gave us the citations. He commented about me having a "racing" sticker on my window (my DragNRacing.com and Buschur Racing stickers) and that also implied I was a street racer. I then had a chance to cross examine him. I had prepared a bunch of questions which included if he had used radar, how he determined our speed from a scientific stand point, what the racing on highway statue read, etc. He said that he could not give verbatim what the racing on highway statue was, but in his opinion we were going fast enough to be racing. We all gave our testimony of the event including that there was a fifth car in the group that never got pulled over since it didn't look like a race car. I also commented that I had driven in many other cities and had not been bothered with regard to my exhaust. Even when police were walking right next to me on the sidewalk or were at the gas station talking and I pulled in.
After our testimony was done, the judge asked us and the DA if either one of us had any other questions. I said that I did and asked him if he knew what the statue said verbatim. He said "I would be glad to tell you." He then said the citations states that you must be involved in a contest of speed or endurance. The judge then started making comments about how in his experience the office was a stand up guy and were some cops will change their testimony to suit a conviction, this guy would stick to his original story. He said that testimony is typical not black and white and that implied that we must be lying or that possibly the officer misjudged our speed but that it in either case we could have been doing 70mph over the speed limit and would still not have been "racing on the highway" and said "not guilty" for all four of us with regard to the racing ticket. He then went on to the exhaust which by this time I was willing to except getting the ticket for as it was no points and wouldn't affect my insurance. He said that he found me guilty but that it would be ZERO dollars! He said that he does that with all exhaust tickets because he would rather the police have the ability to pull someone over for drunk driving, warrants, etc and that is a good cause to check someone. He also said that he has stood in his yard talking to his neighbor and has had to stop because Harley's drive by and he knows the police do not pull them over. At this point I was just like
He then goes on to my other friends saying the same thing. My one friend with the Talon had removed his tint so the judge dismissed his ticket. The other friend that got the front plate ticket also got it dismissed. The judge started talking about how he used to own a $600 car and put it in a snow bank ripping off the front plate. He then got pulled over and warned three or four times before finally getting it fixed. He said it wouldn't be fair for him to give my friend a ticket when he never had got one! He also says "Mr Jones, now you don't have to worry about driving around the city of the La Crosse to get to Stoddard (a city south of the La Crosse/I live North of La crosse)". The trial started at 2:15 and we didn't get done until 3:45. About 45 minutes of it was me either testifying or asking the cop questions. So all in all for the 8 citations issued it equated to six not guilty and two guilty verdicts with zero dollar fines We have the coolest damn municipal judge a city could ever ask for 
So if you ever get a ticket in La Crosse, WI make sure you got fight it and give Judge Montabon a chance to hear your case. He is one kick *** judge!!! My friends didn't think I was too bad of a representative either 
Earlier this summer I took the EVO out for a cruise and ran into a friend that was stopping over at another friends house on the South side of town. So I stop by and we decide to go to dinner on the North side of town. We drove back from dinner and came from a 40mph zone to a 30mph zone and stop light. The light was red so I proceed to pull up next to my friend's Talon who is in the right lane to see if we were going to cruise for a bit or just head back to my friends house. The light turns green before I could get up next to him even though we had almost come to a complete stop. We both leave the light at moderate speed and I pull in behind him. We travel about a quarter of a mile (five cars all in the same lane) and go to turn the corner and all of a sudden I see red and blues. The cop comes flying around the corner half sideways from the far left lane of traffic half way in to the on coming traffic lane after turning the corner. I pulled over right away. My friend was in the Talon in front of me and pulled over but then realized the cop pulled me over and kept going. The cop kept two of the three cars behind me pulled over and the farthest car back was able to keep going (stock looking Accord). So the cop comes up all strung out and asks how fast I was going, etc. I told him 35mph (it is a 30mph zone) and he is like yeah right. Tells me my exhaust is illegal to which I reply that Buschur sells a similar exhaust through a dealer in Wisconsin. So he has me start it up and says it is illegal. He goes and gives my friends the third degree also. He comes back and tells me that he knows the cars plate in front of me and it is going to be much worse on my friend if I don't give the cop his phone number so I do. At this point the cop tells me that he is giving me a racing on highway ticket and illegal exhaust ticket to the sum of $300 for the racing and $100 for the exhaust. It also ends up being six points. He also gives the two cars behind me both street racing tickets and one of my friends a ticket for no front plate. My other friend he ends up calling on his phone and tells him to come down to the station. So my friend goes down their in a van and he tells him that he isn't talking to him until he goes and gets his car, yadda...yadda. My friend goes and gets his Talon and comes back with a racing on highway, illegal exhaust and illegal tint ticket to the sum of $600 and 8 points.
We go to pretrial and all plead not guilty, talk to the DA. DA doesn't want to dismiss it so we setup a trial date. I thought about getting a lawyer but was like screw it, I will just represent myself. They decide to give us a trial all together. The DA asks the cop a bunch of questions about the events that happened. The cop testifies that he was sitting in an alley by the intersection and that the four of us went through it doing 35mph and then sped up to 50mph based on his observations. He noticed us because our loud exhaust distracted him in the middle of a phone conversation. He said he then pursued us, pulled us over and gave us the citations. He commented about me having a "racing" sticker on my window (my DragNRacing.com and Buschur Racing stickers) and that also implied I was a street racer. I then had a chance to cross examine him. I had prepared a bunch of questions which included if he had used radar, how he determined our speed from a scientific stand point, what the racing on highway statue read, etc. He said that he could not give verbatim what the racing on highway statue was, but in his opinion we were going fast enough to be racing. We all gave our testimony of the event including that there was a fifth car in the group that never got pulled over since it didn't look like a race car. I also commented that I had driven in many other cities and had not been bothered with regard to my exhaust. Even when police were walking right next to me on the sidewalk or were at the gas station talking and I pulled in.
After our testimony was done, the judge asked us and the DA if either one of us had any other questions. I said that I did and asked him if he knew what the statue said verbatim. He said "I would be glad to tell you." He then said the citations states that you must be involved in a contest of speed or endurance. The judge then started making comments about how in his experience the office was a stand up guy and were some cops will change their testimony to suit a conviction, this guy would stick to his original story. He said that testimony is typical not black and white and that implied that we must be lying or that possibly the officer misjudged our speed but that it in either case we could have been doing 70mph over the speed limit and would still not have been "racing on the highway" and said "not guilty" for all four of us with regard to the racing ticket. He then went on to the exhaust which by this time I was willing to except getting the ticket for as it was no points and wouldn't affect my insurance. He said that he found me guilty but that it would be ZERO dollars! He said that he does that with all exhaust tickets because he would rather the police have the ability to pull someone over for drunk driving, warrants, etc and that is a good cause to check someone. He also said that he has stood in his yard talking to his neighbor and has had to stop because Harley's drive by and he knows the police do not pull them over. At this point I was just like
He then goes on to my other friends saying the same thing. My one friend with the Talon had removed his tint so the judge dismissed his ticket. The other friend that got the front plate ticket also got it dismissed. The judge started talking about how he used to own a $600 car and put it in a snow bank ripping off the front plate. He then got pulled over and warned three or four times before finally getting it fixed. He said it wouldn't be fair for him to give my friend a ticket when he never had got one! He also says "Mr Jones, now you don't have to worry about driving around the city of the La Crosse to get to Stoddard (a city south of the La Crosse/I live North of La crosse)". The trial started at 2:15 and we didn't get done until 3:45. About 45 minutes of it was me either testifying or asking the cop questions. So all in all for the 8 citations issued it equated to six not guilty and two guilty verdicts with zero dollar fines We have the coolest damn municipal judge a city could ever ask for So if you ever get a ticket in La Crosse, WI make sure you got fight it and give Judge Montabon a chance to hear your case. He is one kick *** judge!!! My friends didn't think I was too bad of a representative either
Last edited by DragNRacing; Sep 17, 2006 at 08:27 PM.
Sep 17, 2006, 08:26 PM
#3
Evolved Member
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: North Beach, MD
Posts: 1,736
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Very nice! Its really worth learning your local laws and finding out how to prove things right or wrong. Same thing happened to me when we got "caught" drifting. We read up on the laws and got our fines dropped to 50 from 250 (they just were looking to get some money out of us) and no points!
Trending Topics
Sep 17, 2006, 08:31 PM
#9
Originally Posted by TonyMS
Great job! Way to defend yourself I would have liked to seen that.
Sep 17, 2006, 08:53 PM
#15
Evolved Member
iTrader: (8)
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 767
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
congrats on winning...but could you do us all a favor and please post the exact questions you asked so mabe someone in the future can use them for a refrence in their case also...thanks and congrats agian....