Alpha8A

Hi everyone, I have a question and was wondering if any of you had any advice on this subject matter. I was on the way home from the airport tonight and was leaving. There was this big tunnel coming up and I wanted to hear my exhaust notes so I dropped the car into 2nd and gave it some gas. While I was doing this, I was well under the speed posted speed limit of 45 mph. No other cars were around as this was around 930pm. To my surprise, there was an unmarked SUV police car behind me that decided to pull me over after seeing this. The officer tells me that he saw what I did and asked what my hurry was. I was completely honest and said that I was not in a hurry, but just wanted to hear my exhaust note, to which he replied "I admit, it did sound pretty good out there". I never once, however admitted to speeding and I still am not. I only said that I wanted to hear the exhaust.

Fast forward, the officer ends up giving me a ticket with a citation for speeding of 60 in a 45. Now here are the problems. First of all, under address, the officer put a completely wrong address for me that is no where listed on my insurance or driver's license. It is the address of my old house and I do not know how he got it, so the house #, street, city, and zipcode are all wrong. It is not just a minor error. Second the detection method written on the ticket is "visual/pace". Not once did my Valentine One go off. That, along with the fact that the officer wrote visual pace shows that he did not use any sort of radar. His whole reason for pulling me over was because it "looked" like I was speeding. To me, it sounds like he saw a sports car with an aggressive exhaust accelerating and decided to see if he could get away with issuing a ticket. Before he had turned his lights on to pull me over, he was at least 300-400 meters behind me. How in any way can that be an accurate detection to say someone is speeding based purely on what the officer can "visually" see at that distance. Any car from that distance can look like its speeding. Now lastly, one other minor detail is that on the ticket, my silver s2000 was documented as being a 2008 year model, but my insurance card clearly shows that it is a 2002. Do all of these arguments add up to make a strong enough case in my favor that the officer was not using proper judgment in issuing a ticket? Thank you guys for any advice.

OH and if it helps, the car has a T1R 70MM exhaust which is quite loud, if that helps.

CLIFF NOTES
pulled over for aggressive acceleration
officer says i was speeding, i never admitted to speeding
officer puts completely wrong address on ticket, only used visual/pace as the detection method, and documented the vehicle as the wrong year of production
what are my chances

Zinda

iTrader: (1)

Fight it! These cops are nothing but power hungry people that are unhappy with their lives. That seems to be the case most of the time with these people...

I do have respect though for cops that work in dangerous areas though.

nabbun

pacing is a common tactic used when they think you have a radar detector. totally legit. it only comes apart in court if he didn't have his speedo checked before and after giving you that citation.

it's just like the whole radar thing, you can fight it and win if the cop didn't calibrate his radar gun before and after giving you that citation.

you can get off a ticket when getting pulled over and asking the cop to show you his permit to use the radar gun. if he don't have one? ticket is bogus.

you can try to fight it saying it wasn't you or w/e cuz of the address.

Brian231

I hate to admit that the only way of coming close to getting this dropped is to obtain a good lawyer specializing in traffic offenses. This will cost at least $500 for the consultation and appearance. I doubt the address technicality will be helpful, but I would see if you can obtain a free consultation.

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

$500?!?!? How about $150 for a simple ticket like this one? Besides, being in Texas you can get it deferred so it doesn't show up as a conviction and affect your insurance.

For all the errors on the ticket - discuss with an attorney. Some places it will get the ticket dismissed, others it won't change a thing. You could make the arresting officer look like a fool on the stand though, or maybe he was giving you a "way out" of the ticket by making all these errors.

AFA pacing - yes it's legal, but not if the vehicle has a standard speedometer - it has to be calibrated and show the most recent calibration date. Just another potential thing for your attorney to take up in court.

Alpha8A

I'm sorry but I forgot to mention in the original post that this took place in Detroit, MI. I live in Houston, TX but go to school in MI. Its different in MI then it was in TX for me. Here, there are no court costs and the ticket is around $110-$130 I think so hiring a lawyer wouldn't exactly be worth it. Also in MI, they don't do the whole defensive driving thing to clear your record. Its just different here. Im not 100% sure how it all works here since I've only lived here for about a year.

As far as the pacing, yes I know it is a legal form but you brought up a very valid point about his speedometer needing to be calibrated. That is something that I have heard about before and I am almost 100% sure that that is not something he had done. I think that argument alone will hold up pretty well in court as who is to say that his speedometer is not off by 10-20 mph. Yes it may be accurate, but then again it may not be, if it has not been calibrated at all. That is one of the other arguments that I will push in court, along with the two clerical mistakes.

My other argument will be that against what he said on the ticket that he used "visual" as a method. I will raise the question of whether or not he has tested his perceptual ability to judge a vehicle's speed against a radar gun, and if so, how was his accuracy. It is easy to say that a car "looks" like its going fast from far away, but it is not the same as saying the car was traveling precisely at 60mph as he said on my ticket. It shocked me that when I asked him what speed he cited me for going that he said "45-60". THAT'S NOT EVEN A SPECIFIC SPEED! That's just a BS range that he gave to give the ticket. I think the whole ticket was BS.

Baby ///M3

I hope you get this issue resolved successfully.

I don't practice in this particular area but I would recommend talking to an experienced lawyer in this field first. For now, if there's anything that I can advise, make sure you don't say anything more than what the cop asks for if similar circumstances ever happen to you again.

For instance, when he asked you what's the hurry, it would be more than sufficient for you to just tell him that you're not in a hurry and keep quiet.

The statement "I just wanted to hear my exhaust" is something that I would not say, regardless of whether or not it's your honest intention at the time.

Good luck!

Jon

tex2670

You should give it a shot at fighting it. I'm not sure the address thing's a winner. That's more of a parking ticket thing, I think, since you aren't present usually when a parking ticket is issued, if it's inacurate, it's thrown out.

Every state's different, but I think, generally, if the cop doesn't show up to testify, the ticket's thrown out. May be worth a day off work to head down to the courthouse.

rdgdawg

+1... an officer's "experience" will also count just as strongly in court... GET A CONTINUANCE!!! Tell the court you have an out-of-town seminar paid for by your company, cannot change. New date he probably won't show (less than 10%)... even if he does, with the wrong address AND some doubt of accuracy, take a couple pictures and ask to speak with the Solicitor before court.... you might get a $50 fine but no points and nothing on your license... I speak from experience....

Alpha8A

Thanks for all of the advice so far. I want to strengthen my case as much as possible. RDGDAWG, when you say take pictures, what exactly is it that I should be taking pictures of?

Alpha8A

Oh and another question, on the ticket, under the subheading of "deny responsibility" there are two options: 1) appear in person in court for an INFORMAL hearing before a magistrate, referee, or judge or 2) appear in court for a FORMAL hearing before a judge. I'm thinking that I'm supposed to do the informal one right? It says that with a formal hearing, there will be an attorney present with the officer.

MARINE

Dress in a business attire if you attend or ask for another court date and still dress accordingly... Chances are the officer cannot attend that date and it is dismissed. Remember, police officers schedule the date that is to their benefit not yours. In florida, i just pay the ticket clinic $75.00 and they fight on my behalf and 99 percent I pay court costs (usually $100 or so...) and no points on my license or record. Its a great thing! or go the cheaper way and spend hours at driving school.