Originally Posted By: lawman1909
Go to court, and if you are genuinely innocent, then you should have no problem. Good luck and remember the ol' saying "Yes your honor" and call the officer "officer", not "cop" or "he/she". Respect will get you much further than ignorance.
Not always. In congested traffic I was pulled over while doing the speed limit and given a ticket for, "disobeying posted speed limits." I asked the police officer in court if he had, by chance, tagged one of the four cars in the left lane that were actually speeding and hit the brakes as soon as they saw him. He replied that I was the only car in the left lane.
The judge was [censored] that I showed up, telling me that the officer was trained in the use of the radar gun he was using, and that the radar detector was in calibration; therefore, a preponderance of evidence meant that I was guilty, even though I did not have a single ticket to my name at that point.
The difference between me and the four other cars that braked ahead of me? They were all older vehicles and I was driving an STI. No way in heck I was driving the speed limit - yea, right!
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Another time, after a loooong period of shift work, I finally got a weekend off to visit my then-girlfriend. I had literally been driving through the city, crossing a bridge and then exiting to where my company is without ever doing more than 55 MPH - it was boring, to say the least. On my way north that day, I decided to really let loose on the bridge. Cops usually hang out at either end, but there's just enough room to get up to 80 MPH in 3rd gear and then let off at the peak of the bridge and engine-brake down to the speed limit before getting into speed trap range. The lane you enter on exits after the bridge, so if it's clear, there's no risky high-speed merge. There's plenty of time to punch it safely, coast down in-gear, and then get over before the lane splits off to the first exit off the bridge
Well, I ended up redlining right next to a cop. I let off the gas as soon as I realized my mistake, clutched in and coasted down to the speed limit. He paced me, keeping just behind me and to the left, until I had no choice, but to get over in front of him from the lane that was exiting at the end of the bridge as I continued on at the speed limit. I had my finger on the hazard button, and pushed it immediately when the bridge ended and his lights turned on right behind me.
I respectfully explained the bad luck of having driven conservatively for WEEKS, and then opening up right at the wrong time. He came back a few minutes later and warned me to, "wait until I got to RI before I started speeding again," and wished me a good weekend.
I wasn't going to let a ticket ruin my weekend off anyway, but when he came back it really made my day. I was a happy camper, to say the least!