T
tinkerer548
Guest
Charge: Menacing 2nd (with an interesting story)
Looking for any type of advice. (Yes, I know, contact an attorney)
"Crime Time" shows that I'm looking at up to 1 yr or up to $1000 fine. I'd like to avoid doing time, as I rather like my job. Mistake #1 (from a lawyers perspective), I admitted the crime. I wasn't arrested until I went into the station to file a report. (Ok, I have trouble lying, thats why we have lawyers, right =] Just kidding!) Please help?
Scenario:
Approaching an exit leaving a parkway, a car pulls up fast behind me with his brights on. I'm doing about 15-20 at the time, there's a stop light about 1500-2000 feet ahead. I stop the car, faster than I should have, but not a skidding stop. I get out and ask him to turn his rights
off. (calmly). He becomes irate, curses back at me, flicks his light switch a few times and says they aren't on. (Yes, I realize some car lights are naturally bright; but these were *brights*.) I say nothing, get back in the car and pull up to the light, ready to make a left. He pulls up in the right lane next to me, staring at me, cursing up a storm. I ignore him for a while, then
finally roll down my window, wave, say "Have a nice night", and roll up my window. The light turns green, we start to go, and he hurls a half full can of ??? at my front right car window. Up to this point, I was very calm, didn't even curse back at him. But I do have a fairly new car (cheap, but new). I swerve behind him (as I was in the left lane), and follow him about 3 miles
into town. (It wasn't a chase; it was local city street driving.) I couldn't tell if there was any damage to my car at this point.
At a stop light, I quickly hop out of my car, and grab my tire iron from my trunk. I was fully intending to break his rear window at this point. (Yes, I was enraged at this point). Next thing I know, there's a gun pointed at me. He smiles, and then says "I'm a cop". Turns out to be a New York City police officer. I tell him, "Lets go to the station, I want to file a report". We both drive to the station (about 4 blocks away). Well, I was arrested at the Peekskill station (by the Peekskill police, after admitting to what happened), and charged with Menacing 2nd. I was very coorperative at the station; told them exactly as above, but they wouldn't let me file anything. (different jurisdiction from the original incident.) I knew I was wrong on some sort of violence count, but didn't find out what I was being charged with until I recieved the court appearance ticket from them. They also 'conveniently' parked my car (pulled up into the police only lot), and searched it. No big deal; I have nothing to hide. They did take the tire iron, though.
(No Miranda warning, but I understand thats not a big deal now. And I'm really not looking to 'get off' on that type of technicality.) Yes, I did wrong and am willing to pay for it, but fair should be fair; I didn't instigate the incident.
I'm 30. I have no record up to this point (not even a speeding ticket). Clean cut, no violent or psychiatric history. Excellent work history (computer technician).
They (the police station) say that I can't file a complaint against him throwing a can at my car window because there was no damage.
So, I can stand on the side of the road and hurl cans at moving cars, and as long as there is no damage, its ok? And its ok for someone to tail you with his brights on? And its ok to verbally assault someone as if to start a fight? And its ok for the officer to pull a gun on someone in a personal incident, and then not even arrest them?
I didn't get to read it, but the officers version of the story is very close to mine. (They told the story to my brother, who posted bail.) Of course, he conveniently left out the part about his 25 second long cursing fit. And he claims it was the car behind him that threw the can. Note: I have perfect vision.
Looking for any type of advice. (Yes, I know, contact an attorney)
"Crime Time" shows that I'm looking at up to 1 yr or up to $1000 fine. I'd like to avoid doing time, as I rather like my job. Mistake #1 (from a lawyers perspective), I admitted the crime. I wasn't arrested until I went into the station to file a report. (Ok, I have trouble lying, thats why we have lawyers, right =] Just kidding!) Please help?
Scenario:
Approaching an exit leaving a parkway, a car pulls up fast behind me with his brights on. I'm doing about 15-20 at the time, there's a stop light about 1500-2000 feet ahead. I stop the car, faster than I should have, but not a skidding stop. I get out and ask him to turn his rights
off. (calmly). He becomes irate, curses back at me, flicks his light switch a few times and says they aren't on. (Yes, I realize some car lights are naturally bright; but these were *brights*.) I say nothing, get back in the car and pull up to the light, ready to make a left. He pulls up in the right lane next to me, staring at me, cursing up a storm. I ignore him for a while, then
finally roll down my window, wave, say "Have a nice night", and roll up my window. The light turns green, we start to go, and he hurls a half full can of ??? at my front right car window. Up to this point, I was very calm, didn't even curse back at him. But I do have a fairly new car (cheap, but new). I swerve behind him (as I was in the left lane), and follow him about 3 miles
into town. (It wasn't a chase; it was local city street driving.) I couldn't tell if there was any damage to my car at this point.
At a stop light, I quickly hop out of my car, and grab my tire iron from my trunk. I was fully intending to break his rear window at this point. (Yes, I was enraged at this point). Next thing I know, there's a gun pointed at me. He smiles, and then says "I'm a cop". Turns out to be a New York City police officer. I tell him, "Lets go to the station, I want to file a report". We both drive to the station (about 4 blocks away). Well, I was arrested at the Peekskill station (by the Peekskill police, after admitting to what happened), and charged with Menacing 2nd. I was very coorperative at the station; told them exactly as above, but they wouldn't let me file anything. (different jurisdiction from the original incident.) I knew I was wrong on some sort of violence count, but didn't find out what I was being charged with until I recieved the court appearance ticket from them. They also 'conveniently' parked my car (pulled up into the police only lot), and searched it. No big deal; I have nothing to hide. They did take the tire iron, though.
(No Miranda warning, but I understand thats not a big deal now. And I'm really not looking to 'get off' on that type of technicality.) Yes, I did wrong and am willing to pay for it, but fair should be fair; I didn't instigate the incident.
I'm 30. I have no record up to this point (not even a speeding ticket). Clean cut, no violent or psychiatric history. Excellent work history (computer technician).
They (the police station) say that I can't file a complaint against him throwing a can at my car window because there was no damage.
So, I can stand on the side of the road and hurl cans at moving cars, and as long as there is no damage, its ok? And its ok for someone to tail you with his brights on? And its ok to verbally assault someone as if to start a fight? And its ok for the officer to pull a gun on someone in a personal incident, and then not even arrest them?
I didn't get to read it, but the officers version of the story is very close to mine. (They told the story to my brother, who posted bail.) Of course, he conveniently left out the part about his 25 second long cursing fit. And he claims it was the car behind him that threw the can. Note: I have perfect vision.