worth to fight ann arbor open intox charge?

[hallospaceboy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

No breth. given, just an open intox ticket, saying that I was carrying a red plastic cup...

What's the court going to say if I say I was sober and the cup had coke in it?

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

No breth. given, just an open intox ticket, saying that I was carrying a red plastic cup...

What's the court going to say if I say I was sober and the cup had coke in it?

I think they'll say "The officer states it was alcohol. What is your evidence that it wasn't?"

 

[hallospaceboy]

What happened to "innocent" until PROVEN guilty?

 

[Zigner]

What happened to "innocent" until PROVEN guilty?

The way it works is that the prosecution presents their evidence first. That evidence is the testimony of the officer as to what was in the cup.

Then, you get to present your evidence. That evidence is YOUR testimony as to what was in the cup.

Then, the court will decide who is more credible. My guess is that the unbiased officer's testimony will carry much more weight.

 

[hallospaceboy]

Okay, thank you for the explanation.

I guess I am going on the assumption that the officer won't show up in which case I shouldn't get anything on my record (which is currently clean)... they rarely do for things like this around here, and on the rare occasion that they do drop by, what's done is that you actually meet with the cop before showing up in front of the judge to agree on a coherent story of what went down and what should be done about it.