jags300

I sending the ticket to Mark Levinson, JK. Yea, I got a ticket a few weeks ago in the Lex by some a**hole cop. $200 bucks, ouch! Have to go to court today to fight it. Any good ideas on how I can beat this?

The G Man

What is the violation, I didnt know MA has such a law.

jags300

This was in Lawrence, City Noise Ordinance. Number 9.04.040

The G Man

Did the cop have a noise meter, ie, dB meter with him. Try the judge you have a hearing problem and teh radio wasnt that loud

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

i forget what it is, and im sure it differes from state to state but i believe it has to be soemthing like 100 ft away or below 90db's or something. i cant remember exactly but either way, how did he cite you for it? did he just come up to you and say it was too loud or did he have a meter to determine it was too loud?

same thing thing applies to exhaust. unless they have a db meter to measure how loud it is, it wont hold up in court. i had to go to court for my exhaust on my old car. cop said it was too loud. judge asked why i pleaded not guilty and i told him because the cop did not have a db meter. automatically thrown out.

jags300

Nope, I guess he was just "playing it by ear"! Any idea how high this stereo system can go? (in dB)

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

not sure, you would have to look it up but i know they can also say well i was X amount of feet away and i heard it, so there for the ticket stands. it could go either way. look up the law and see how it is measured in MA. if its by a certain distance, then i would say your **** out of luck.

jags300

I wasn't that far from him when he noticed me. I drove by him in opposing traffic, he made a U-turn and pulled me over. So I would say distance was about 10-15 feet.

IXI187IXI

iTrader: (3)

so it was just a regular 2 lane road (1 lane going each way)? did he just give you the ticket after he pulled you over? did he stand a certain distance back and listen? if not i would fight the ticket and say the cop did not stand X amount of feet back as required by law to deterime if it was too loud.

ZippyGuy

iTrader: (9)

I got the same ticket when I was in my teens. It's defined as "reasonableness" of volume to have the ability to hear and react to the environment around you from what I can understand. Keep this on in mind too, you can get a ticket called "unreasonable speed/speed too fast to avoid a collusion." I've had that one as well.

It's all subjective and the law DOES have the authority.

jags300

Yes
Yes

No

Thanks, I got a few ideas now on what to say!

jags300

I have a pretty good idea why he pulled me over. He sees a young Hispanic driving a $50,000 dollar car. Its also a poor neighborhood so I definitely was standing out. The first thing he asks is "What are you doing in Lawrence?" (My license says Boston, thats where I live.) That right there tells me he was looking for something else. This is what pissed me of! It was a nice warm day out, I had the stereo on around 50 and I had my window down.

jtrue28

did you have your windows down or up? you could also say that since the Lexus has automatic sound leveling that the car automatically increased the volume since you were moving. good luck!

whlkev

50 ???? blasting music in a nice car in a bad neighborhood..

that's definitely way too loud

mine is around 12-15 at all time and it's on the moderate side of things, i can't even imagine it being at 50

sorry, nothing is worse than having to listen to someone else' music while i am driving, especially not from another car

Bavaria

Actually, present company excepted, when some creep pulls next to me and I can hear (and feel) the crap coming from his (usual) piece of junk, and my windows are closed, I lower my window, hit the classical station, and out-volume the cretin every time. To be forced to listen to scoop dog***** or some other sub-human degenerate just because traffic is stopped doesn't cut it.