Hey everybody,

I have a court appearance (because I think the ticket was :bs) tomorrow for my speeding ticket this summer :mad. I had just passed through a podunk speed trap town at the speed limit :blueangel: since my radar detector went off before getting into town and I saw the cop tagging. A few miles out of town, I sped back up to the posted 65, and then set my cruise at 75. A few miles later, I was pulled over by the cop from that little town. No radar detector went off :confused:.

Well, he gets my license, insurance, registration, and all that, and it checks out...since I keep up on that stuff. He comes back with a ticket for 89 in a 65 and told me I was doing 92. He said he was doing me a favor by dropping the speed for the ticket :lol:. He never told me how he knew how fast I was going, I never told him how fast I was going, he didn't write how on the ticket either.

How do I get this reduced? :cool:

 

Well, I live just an hour north of you in Morrison. I am assuming this is a Colorado ticket. If it were outside of Colorado, just pay the fine and relax, because Colorado does not count points outside the state.

If that's in Colorado, that is a 6-point ticket. Over 20 is 6-points.
You should have looked at your ticket and inquired at the time what the method of entrapment was.

It's pretty clear it wasn't radar. Like you said, your detector would have gone off. But it could have been Laser or what they call, Lidar, which is just timing you driving across painted, measured lines and calculate your speed from those times. You could also have been nabbed using a police plane...eye in the sky.

If it's in Colorado, and you have a clean record, you should be able to offer a plea bargain. You'll meet the DA and he'll offer you the plea bargain. Might knock it down to a couple of points. Take it. My advice is to take a REASONABLE offer because everybody gets nabbed sometimes. They want your money, not your license. Remember that it's an important form of revenue for many podunk little towns.

If they offer you no plea bargain, even if you ask the DA for one, then they're railroading you, and you would have no choice but to fight it.

If it were radar, it depends on your surroundings. Radar picks up the largest object, NOT the fastest object. This was a class experiment when I was an electrical engineering student. If you were out in the middle of nowhere, you could also request from where your radar ticket was read. Radar doesn't work at near-90 degree angles. You can prove that trigonometrically.

I don't think it was radar. They could have been tipped off by the previous cop that you can detect that. Laser, on the other hand, you can't escape from so easily. And Lidar is subject to human error. That can be proven mathematically too. Just calculate the human error delaying the pushing of the stopwatch button and then leading it when you cross the second line in anticipation. A 1 second error could significantly change the perceived speed you were travelling.

Most importantly, get a jury of your peers or FORGET IT. The judges support the cops and you will not win, unless a jury excuses it.
If you ask for a jury trial, you have the right to examine the same evidence that the DA has at his disposal. Be organized and prepared. If you can't do the math, get someone who can.

Tomorrow is simply your pleading the case. If not guilty, they'll set up a court date. If plea bargained, you'll settle tomorrow.

Good luck. And be ever so careful when driving an "arrest me Corvette" through these little towns. If you're tailed, you should stop, get out, and see if the cop can explain what seems to be the problem. But don't let them tail you.

Let us know what happens.

 

I couldn't see there was a cop tailing me, because the car behind me was bigger than me :boxing. I knew I was going over the limit, so I pulled over...he ticketed me and the guy behind me for the same offense.

 

Heh..heh..
Rainman69..get pissed about it right from the get go. Ive found thats the only way to let them know you know their :bs
If they see one bit of hesitation about what their handing you, your had, and got to go to court to get it reduced and reasoned out,..even then you loose. If your clean, no alchol ect. go for the gusto right on the side of the road..you got nothing to loose, its your highway, but they dont want you to know that..good luck..


[Modified by 69classchass, 1:12 AM 10/23/2001]

 

I am thinking he was pacing you with his speedometer. Cop speedometers are calibrated so I would not put much faith in your 33 year old one. Plus, I bet you don't have original tire sizes on that 69.

Plead it out and write it off to experience.

 

I'm not bothered by the $$...I just don't want insurance rates to go up. Do you think a good plea would be, "I pay the original fine, the ticket gets reduced to something silly, I still learn my lesson?"

 

Its all after the fact now, The best you can do(to avoid insurance adjustments) is go to traffic school, dont they have a traffic school option, along with the $$ in colorado.

 

This posting question is a little late since your court appearance is tomorrow, and most information requests or other court requests are usually done days/weeks ahead of time. But I'll throw in my two pennies worth and see where they fall.....

I'm not familiar with CO's tickets and what they need to represent, but here in Washington the infraction does have to be marked by the officer on how the speed was obtained I.E. Radar (Speed measuring Device), Pace, Etc. and what the charge is I.E. Speeding XYZ in a XYZ zone.

If you are cited for speed using radar/lasar here in Wash. you can subpeona the calibration person(s)/company representitive to court to testify on when, where, Etc. the actual unit was tested/calibrated, results, Etc. If the officer "paced you", the same question of his vehicle's speedometer and it's calibration could be brought up. Here in Wash. St. the Radar/Lasar has to be checked both internally and externally by the officer before and after the infraction issuance for true calibration and proper working order. To some degree the actual patrol car's speedometer should go through the same thing. If you were paced as an example and it's been months/years since the patrol cars original/last calibration and it's not been calibrated since the stop. One could argue the officers car is not correct, or that it can't be relyed on as accurate.

Of course this information is usually requested from the court days/weeks ahead of time by your attorney or yourself. This could include all reports/information associated with the ticket (typically called "Discovery") along with the subpeona/request that the court/police dept. provide all relative data about calibrations to the car, radar/laser unit, to show when, where, by who, results, Etc.

You could request a "continuance" from the court, and if granted request through discovery the information mentioned. But I don't think the court "has" to grant the continuance request.

I hope at the very least you requested the officers presence so you could question him on the stand on how he went about obtaining the 92MPH top speed. But again if you didn't ahead of time here in Washington He/She is not required to appear the court/judge will just read from his/her sworn report/officers notes on the stop and ticket. :boxing

Another question that might be raised (at least by you) is jurisdiction, and did this officer cite you for speeding in his city or did he obtain his speed out side of his city and possible cite you into the wrong court???

There are so many questions that could be raised/argued, that's why god made attorney's I guess :D

Anyway good luck!

 

LIDAR is the same as radar is cept its using laser.
its using a dopler effect of a laser beam to get a speed reading.
I think its fairly acurate.
Here in Aus all the patrol cars have them. They have calibrated speedos.
and they have to get 2 readings to book you.
its a pity since the corvette is a pretty stealthy car on radar being fibreglass.
fibre glass absorbs a lot of the radar and, replacement fibreglass panals were made ilegal at some point here because people knew about it.
people use halogen lights to give bogus readings on the LIDAR. I think they
are ilegal here too.

Chris :cheers: