What is the name of your state?Indiana (Fort Wayne)
I am considering appealing tickets from a situation where I was pulled over by an officer looking to let off some steam. I was issued 5 tickets as follows:
1. Seat belt
2. Wrong way on one way (code was wrong judge changed to speeding, officer wrote paced at 55 in a 40)
3. Unsafe lane movement (code changed by judge to change lane without signal)
4. Lane change without signal
5. Lane change without signal
Judge laughed at my questions and upheld all 5 violations. I am considering appealing but don’t know if I have a legal basis. Here are some considerations.
1. Was the law applied to me fairly? Officer was recently moved to crime scene division and received 3 complaints from pull overs within the past 30 days. Judge would not let me ask questions about the officer (to establish that she treated me unfairly).
2. Can the judge just change the violations and then upheld them? Shouldn’t I have a chance to prepare my defense. I was found guilty of charges that I was not even made aware of or accused of until during trial when the judge changed the codes from those written on the tickets.
3. The department limits officers to writing 3 citations but she wrote 5. (I didn’t learn this until after the trial).
4. Is it possible to research officer’s statements, if so could the decision be reversed if she was stretching the truth? I asked how many tickets she had given out for not signaling lane changes and she answered “a lot”. (I spoke to two other officers who had NEVER given out a ticket for not using signal. This is why in #1 I think I was treated unfairly, Any other officer likely would have just given me a seat belt citation).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I am considering appealing tickets from a situation where I was pulled over by an officer looking to let off some steam. I was issued 5 tickets as follows:
1. Seat belt
2. Wrong way on one way (code was wrong judge changed to speeding, officer wrote paced at 55 in a 40)
3. Unsafe lane movement (code changed by judge to change lane without signal)
4. Lane change without signal
5. Lane change without signal
Judge laughed at my questions and upheld all 5 violations. I am considering appealing but don’t know if I have a legal basis. Here are some considerations.
1. Was the law applied to me fairly? Officer was recently moved to crime scene division and received 3 complaints from pull overs within the past 30 days. Judge would not let me ask questions about the officer (to establish that she treated me unfairly).
2. Can the judge just change the violations and then upheld them? Shouldn’t I have a chance to prepare my defense. I was found guilty of charges that I was not even made aware of or accused of until during trial when the judge changed the codes from those written on the tickets.
3. The department limits officers to writing 3 citations but she wrote 5. (I didn’t learn this until after the trial).
4. Is it possible to research officer’s statements, if so could the decision be reversed if she was stretching the truth? I asked how many tickets she had given out for not signaling lane changes and she answered “a lot”. (I spoke to two other officers who had NEVER given out a ticket for not using signal. This is why in #1 I think I was treated unfairly, Any other officer likely would have just given me a seat belt citation).
Any suggestions would be appreciated.