Funny story...a buddy of mine got pulled going 59 in a 55. The cop gave him a speeding ticket(HAHA) and claimed he had a modified exhaust (stock) and he kept arguing and telling him that the thing was stock, the cop didnt even bother to listen. So as he comes over and tells him to sign the ticket, he says "sure", smiles, skips his CD to Bone Thugs-F*** the police (car was ON in accesories), lets the song play for about 4-5 seconds and slowly signs the ticket and gives it back to him. The cop just laughed and left. After that incident, i actually like that song

 

HAHA thats such BS, its BLACKMAIL, so no..youre not screwed at all, hes just tryna scare u

 

I am a police officer and I recommend you go to court. Continuances dont really make a difference, at least not with my department, they REQUIRE us to go or we are penalized, its not our choice, plus judges get a little miffed when you postpone 20 times. As far as the charges when you are in court:

1. You can plead guilty and hope for the judge to give you lesser fines.
2. If you plead innocent, here are some questions you can ask him:
- What color your car was?
-Did he have his windows up or down?
-How far away was he?
-How did he know you were speeding? Radar? Were you going towards him or away?
-If he did not use radar, I assume he would have had to pace you, ask him when was the last time he calibrated his speedometer?
-Ask him what EXACTLY constitues a mutilated license (definition)
3. Basically make him define all those charges and make him provide you will ALL the small details, if he doesnt remember enough, the judge may drop charges.
4. In my experiance, unless its for brutality, filing a complaint will do absolutely NOTHING except make the officer show up to court to make sure you go down. I know that I could care less about complaints, most of the time, i never even heard about the ones against me, although mine are usually from people who deserved my ill treatment

Rob
2006 Evo IX
Wicked White.

 

Brian Spillner are you going nato on me?!!!!


+1 for help from the man who knows his s**t

 

Do you think he would answer all of those questions truthfully in court when he blatantly lied to me and on my ticket? Im asking your opinion because I dont think he would, he would just lie to make all of the variables in his favor. I dont think speeding will be worth anything in court because I didnt get a ticket for it, but Im not sure. Im definately going to plead innocent and ask my witness (my friend),to tell the judge everything I said is correct. Then I will state my facts, about how my car has NEVER "squeeled its tires", it is an AWD car, and I will use what someone else mentioned and say mabye he was misunderstood and heard the turbo. Its a high pitched sound and that can be mistaken for tires squeeling.

Does that sound alright?

 

I just dont believe in giving people tickets for no reason, the only speeding tickets I give are for accidents where it is obvious excessive speed was involved and played a factor, or if you are doing something really stupid. Giving someone a ticket out in the middle of nowhere is pointless and rookie. Of course......there ARE always two sides to every story. And i tend to take people's internet stories with a grain of salt. Alot of people just dont like the police and want to make everyone else not like them either. If you really wanna get down to the point, he ADMITS he was speeding and all, but then complains about being charged.

Rob

 

actually, i filed a complaint about 3 years ago against a rookie who pulled me over for "running a stop sign". background info... just had a blizzard on monday-ish... maybe tuesday... been a while. anywayz, im heading to work in my awesome dodge neon (haha) on friday morning about 6 am. not paying a damn bit of attention to the exit ramp i was getting off on. at the end of the exit ramp is a stop sign for a double lane road in both directions. go past 1, sit in middle, go to 2nd stop sign, either make a left or go straight.

so, as im coming down the ramp, a little fast i admit, i hit a patch of ice and started to slide sideways after hitting the brakes in panic. well, after a quick 1 second look to my left to see if any cars were coming (not like i had a choice anyway) i let the brakes go, tried to correct (managed a little) and gently tapped the gas to try to bring it back in. in the process of trying not to wreck i ran the 1st stop sign. stop at the 2nd, make a left and here comes this cruiser all light up and ready to go.

of course i pull over immediatly and keep the car running (it was kinda cold, lol) roll down all the windows, yada yada. officer comes up and says why did u run the sign. i try to explain "officer i tried to sto---- NO U DIDNT! I SAW THE WHOLE THING, DONT TRY ANY LIE TO ME. U WENT THROUGH IT PLAIN AND SIMPLE. as he walks away mutters young punk, takes my license and reg and gets in his car to write me a ticket... didnt even give me a chance to explain.

anywayz, he writes me a ticket, i sign it say nothing, and, since he didnt advise me i was on camera and was being recorded and since i was pissed off. he handed me my stuff, i promply did a neutral drop on loose gravel and (slowly took off, lol). bout an hour later, went and filed a formal complaint against the officer... took 6 months to get a court date, when i finally called to find out why it took so long, found out my complaint (along with others the officer had recieved) had gotten him transfered about 200 miles away and would not be showing up for court. his (former) supervisor advised me to go to court and the ticket would be dropped...

so, u never know how ur complaint could impact a case against or for u. best advice, do it anyway!

 

I don't think that he has any choice but to answer most of the questions truthfully as most can be checked and verified and no cop wants to go down on a perjury count. Like I said, and most here have, tell the truth, bring lots of factual backup info, be firm but polite, and give it your best. Things tend to work out as they should, and you seem to have the facts on your side.

 

Just remember if he is lying, and you are smart, you can catch him in a lie. Also, if he doesnt know the exact factors for a certain charge, (like knowing exactly what defines a "mutilated license")the judge will figure he doesnt know what he is doing, and drop charges. If you let the judge know your car is modified, he probably will side with the officer. If you spit a bunch of gearhead mumbo jumbo at the judge he probably wont listen. Concentrate more on discrediting the officer's testimony, and picking on the things he did. He has to have probable cause to pull you over, which he said was speed, so ask him how he KNEW 100% that you were speeding. You have to ask him as many questions as possible that he doesnt know and have the proof to back it up when he doesnt, like your car color, if he says your car was red and it is black, that makes him a crappy witness. If you lie in court in my department, and get caught, you get fired. Just remember in court its not what you know, its what you can prove.

Rob

 

That story makes me have anxiety!! I cant stand *******s that work for our justice system. U cant mix justice with *******s, it just doesnt work!

 

While I do understand there are 2 sides to every story, I am telling my side exactly how it went. I dont need to come on here and lie to make myself look better, I think the cop did that for me. I do admit I was speeding, but like you said, it was in the middle of the night, on a pitch black road, in the middle of nowhere. He could have just made me go home. I had my brights on and I was paying very close attention to the road ahead. The cop didnt want to hear my story, he didnt care.

When I do go to court, I will bring a list of questions to ask him. But what if he answers all of them right? Like my car color, the distance away he was, all of that stuff? I mean my car is graphite grey, what if he says grey? What if I ask him how far away he thought he was and he says 50 feet? Would I ask my witnesses opinion and he would say 500 feet to back me up? Would that be enough to discredit him? Thanks for the help so far.

 

Yes thank you. It's really not worth it for an officer to lie. There is WAY too much for him/her at stake to lie about something stupid like a speeding ticket etc. It's not worth their job because if someone finds out about it, they lose their job and good luck passing the background interview and polygraph trying to get a new one! I just went through a background interview and poly and they are very exact in what they ask, etc. They check to see if they are truthful and if they have strong character before they will ever hire them. I have another background interview and poly in a couple days with another dept. so hopefully I get the results from the first one soon, and hopefully this next one goes well.

 

First- to everyone who has had a bad experience with an officer, i dont care, im not here to defend the police, there are good and bad cops, just like there are good and bad people, everyone has bad police stories, and when i do help someone most of the time they dont even thank me, oh well its a thankless job. When im around noone wants me there, and when im not around people complain about me not being there. I didnt mean for this thread to turn into a police discussion. I was simply trying to help someone who sounded like he could use it. Also, I wasn't infering you were lying, only that maybe what he thought he saw was different from what you know. Things can look very different then they are.
I own an Evo 9, I have owned Rx7 TTs and Supra TTs before this vehicle, I do know what it is like to be on the other side of the law and I think it makes me a better officer. I tend to be easier on drivers unless they are endangering people.
- If the officer answers all of your questions correctly, then you are out of luck. Judges usually side with police officers when it comes to traffic because according to 99% of all defendants, the officer wrongfully accused them of the traffic infraction. Noone ever did what the officer said.
- If the officer is close on the gray color, that question is worthless.
- You will have to basically prove that the officer was too far away to hear the tires squealing. You could try to tell the judge that AWD cars dont squeal tires, but its his discretion whether or not to believe you or care.
- A witness is always good, but the judge will take into consideration he is your friend.

You have to think of ways to trip him up. He might not be lying in his mind, thats something else to think about. Dont think of so much proving he is lying, more concentrate on trying to make him a bad witness. Thats all a cop is in court is a witness, he can't charge you for something he didnt see. Ask him questions before you prove your point: Anything he doesnt remember will make him look bad and discredit him further as a witness.

-Did you have the windows up or down? You might wanna ask how hot or cold it was that night, and did he have A/C on or heat, either way he may have had the windows up preventing him from hearing.
-Do you remember what color my car was?
-What about the license was mutilated?
-What constitutes a mutilated license by law?
-Why was I pulled over? Speeding? How can you be sure I was speeding? Radar? Pacing? Ask when he tuned his radar gun, and if he had a recorded speed? It sounds like he "saw" you speeding without knowing how fast, that doesnt count in court. If you can get the probable cause nullified for pulling you over in the first place, the rest will be dropped and it will be an illegal stop.
-Another thing you have to consider is the cost of the ticket compared to the cost of the court fees, and the cost of all the tickets he will write you in the future if you make him mad enough in court

Rob
Good Cop
Evo 9

 

+1

 

Yes, you seem to be a good and honest cop. I appreciate all of the help you have given. So I should go about asking him if he remembers the temperature that night? It was a good night so he might have had his windows down, but I will ask him if they were up or down. If they were up, theres no way he could have heard me that far away. I will ask his approxiamte distence from me when he turned on his lights. Also, why did he pull me over in the first place. If he says reckless driving and speeding, I will ask why I did not recieve tickets for those offenses? I will ask how he knew I was speeding if he was "X" feet away, or how he could tell I was driving recklessly. If you are willing, I can take this to PM so it doesnt constantly bump this thread.

Thanks so much.