I accidentally posted this in the wrong place...

What is the name of your state? Ohio

And I'm moving it here after deleting it from the wrong board.

I have a 21 year old nephew who has lived with me for several years. Two nights ago, he received a ticket for driving 77 in a 35.

As he was leaving Walmart, someone in a pickup truck was behind him and for whatever reason, decided that he was going to give my nephew a hard time.

This pickup was tailing my son and driving erratically and at one point, was so close to my nephew's rear end my nephew couldn't see the other cars headlights in the rearview mirror. He tried the slowing down thing (it was a 4 lane road on the ourskirts of our small town) to force the other car to pass him and the other car refused to pass, instead turning his brights on so that my nephew was blinded. When he did this, he slowed to about 20 MPH in a 55. He then decided to just go the speed limit again to see if the other car would leave him alone. The pickup just returned to riding his bumper. He told me last night, as did the kid that was in the car with him, that he even waved his arm out the window to suggest to the other car they pass him.

It was at this point, the other car started to pull up next to him, but instead tried to hit his rear bumper. My nephew floored his car to get away. My nephew didn't have his cell phone with him, so he couldn't call the police. When he accelerated, a state trooper was coming from the other direction.

The State Trooper pulled him over and let the other guy go and he then accused my nephew of racing. Whenever my nephew tried to tell him what was going on, the trooper would interrupt him and accuse him of drag racing again. He tried to tell him three times and all three times he was interrupted. He was sitting in the patrol car and it's all on tape.

My nephew was trying to get to the state patrol office that was on the street he was on, but about three city blocks away.

The ticket was written for speeding only, not racing, as the trooper was accusing him.

He has to go to court on this on Wednesday to appear in front of the judge. The only other points he has on his license is a 10 over the limit from over a year ago.

What is expected at the appearance?

Is trying to get away from a nutcase on the road a valid defense for speeding?

How did it go, since it is now Friday.

What happened...

I was out of town last week visiting my mom in Wilmington, DE...

My neohew went to court and pled not guilty.

Before I left, I went and talked to the state trooper. We watched the tape together and the truck that was harrassing my nephew was on the tape.

Once he heard the story, he agreed with me that while my nephew made a mistake by trying to outrun the guy, he shouldn't lose his license or his job over it.

He told me when we go to the pre-hearing conferance with the prosecutor to let them know there is a tape and that we have talked to him about it. He said he would recommend to the prosecutor that it should either be reduced or dropped.

So, we'll see what kind of mood the prosecutor is in when we meet with them on the 5th of May.

Nice story and you're a nice aunt.

Thanks HG...

I think you're pretty okay too!

My nephew hasn't had a lot of breaks in life. His dad (my brother) died when he was 4 and his mom decided that drnking heavily and staying gone for days was the way to handle things.

Garrett came to live with us several years ago and has turned his life around a great deal. I have let him know that while I'm helping him out on this one, he's on his own if it happens again.

I show my kids once the right way to handle the big things like this and if they don't catch on, well, then it's their fault.

Please keep us posted and good luck!