First off, I came here for help, not to argue or to make my husbands case look like anything it is not. If I didn't make it clear I apologize. I wrote only the basics in my first post only because my wrist is fractured (making it difficult to type a lot), and because I thought the other details might confuse the main question. Let me just start over.
My husband was ticketed for driving 75 in a 45 zone (better?).
On the way home from basketball practice at our church he and two of his friends were catching a ride from him. They headed down a 4 lane road, the time was 1am. They noticed a police car following them, so my husband checked his speed, it was 40mph. He continued and the police car came up to my husband's car on the left, looked in the car for a moment and then passed him. The police car came to a red light, and my husband soon met up at that same light, when the light changed my husband went on, but he noticed the police car waited a moment, and then made a U-Turn in the opposite direction. Shortly after this, another police car began to follow my husband on that same road. As they both approached the next light the police car pulled into the lane to the right of my husband, both were turning lanes. As the light turned green my husband began to make his turn, and the police car illegally changed lanes in midturn to get back behind my husband and then after both cars were on the new road the police car flashed his lights and pulled my husband over. My husband rolled down his window, was asked for his license and proof of insurance. The officer asked him if he knew that he could go to jail for going 30 miles over the limit. My husband answered, that he did not know that. My husband does not take a threat of jail lightly so he cooperated. He was asked to step out of the car, and asked if he had any weapons or drugs in the car, he said no. The officer then asked if he could search the car, my husband said yes. The officer, after frisking my husband, searched our car, and frisked both passengers. He then began to ask my husband if he knew the passengers names, my husband told him their names. The officer then asked if he knew their last names, he did not. Both passengers were coworkers of mine and even I don't know their last names, but the officer made a very big deal out of this questioning over and over why my husband didn't know their last names. My husband maintained his composure, and answered honestly. The officer then gave him his ticket and went on his way.
If my husband had been speeding why had the first officer not pull him over. The period of time the second car had followed him which was less than a quarter of a mile, our car can't even get up to 75mph in that short amount of distance. We drive a 99 Kia Sephia. FYI all this is in the state of Georgia. The only reason we have not hired an attourney is because the cheapest one we can find is $600, and money is not something we have a lot of. Which is why I came to FREE advice.com. The reason we believe it to be race driven is because a friend of my husband's who is also a police officer told us that what the first officer did was called profiling by looking into the car and seeing a white man in his 20's and two black men in their 20's at that time of night you would be gaurunteed to be pulled over. That and he also said that because it was the end of the month that the police officer had to fill his quota. We don't KNOW any of this for certain, but we do KNOW that my husband doesn't speed. He, as I said before, drives for a living, and has an outstanding record in my opinion. I just want advice about how to approach the judge with all of this, because judges, from my understanding, are notorious for seeing a case like this and just pushing it through telling you to pay your fine and not really hearing you out. My husband and I are not aggresive people, and will have a hard enough time just asking the jusdge to hear our side of it. I hope now you see why I didn't go into all this before, because of the shear amount of information there is to be told, but now with this I hope you can help us. I really feel there is something here to show the judge the truth, but I'm not sure how to approach it, if you can offer any help I would really appreciate it, but please don't post unless you can offer something that will help me, no more of this go get a lawyer stuff. If you can't help then thank you for taking the time to read, but don't reply.
Thank you,
Melissa