22348(B) Exceeding 100 mph. No radar. No Pacing.

[LucidObscurity]

California

I received a speeding ticket for violating VC 22348(B) "Exceeding 100 mph". The ticket states my speed at 105 mph and the rader section was left blank (also my Valentine 1 was silent). Due to the circumstances the officer would not have been able to pace me affectively and while I was in his view I was definatelly traveling less than 100 mph. I wrote down my recollection of the incident shortly afterward while it was fresh in my memory. I plan to fight the ticket starting with a trial by declaration. I'm hoping someone here will give me some experienced advice as to my best defence approach.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Here's what I wrote down shortly after the incident. These are just my notes and do not reflect what I will submit to court.

I Was driving in the left lane southbound on the 57 Freeway just before the ??? overpass.
I accellerated in order to safely merge right as my exit (???) was approaching.
I continued accellerating and merging right one lane at a time.
Once I passed under the overpass I noticed a CHP office on a newer style motorcycle coming down the on ramp with his lights on.
my estimated speed was in the 90's as I began braking lightly and signaling right. I know this because I glanced down at the speedometer as I was braking and the
needle was slowly moving down in the mid/high 80's region. Based on the gradual rate at which I was decellerating and the amount of time between my
beginning to decellerate and my glancing at my speedometer the maximum speed I reached was somewhere in the mid 90's.
I'm not sure if the officer was stationary on the overpass and observed the begining of my merge from the left lane and then proceeded to enter the freeway
or if he happened to be entering the freeway and observed my passing under the overpass.
I pulled over onto the shoulder about 1/4 mile before my exit (???)
I engaged my parking brake, turned off my engine, rolled down the windows and turned off the radio.
the officer parked on the right side of my vehicle towards the rear.
I then placed my hands on the top of steering wheel while the officer approached.
The officer asked "What's your deal?".
I explained that I was merging right and accelerating instead of braking seemed the more fluid approach, but that I probably should have chosen the pedel on the left instead.
The officer asked "Do you know how fast you were going?"
I stated that I had not been paying attention to my speedometer at the time.
The officer sounded surprised or upset that I was unable to tell him how fast I was going when he asked "You really didn't see how fast you were going?"
He then asked "How fast do you think you were going?"; to which I replied "I'm not exactly sure, maybe somewhere around 85 perhaps."
I knew this to be a low estimate, but since I did not know for sure and had to estimate I chose the lower end of my estimation.
The officer seemed to also feel this was a low estimate since he commented sarcastically "Eighty five huh?, you passed a white car in the right lane like it was standing still."
Sensing his frustration I stated "I don't mean to be cute, but I'm not exactly sure how fast I was going but it was somewhere around that speed; perhaps a bit more."
He then stated that this "white car was doing about 85 when I passed it". I knew this to be false since I had just merged from the left (fast) lane of the freeway where
the fastest traffic was travelling no more than 75 with most of the traffic traveling slower than that. This freeway at this time of day typically travels no faster than 70 with few exceptions.
I did not argue with the officer or comment; however this leads me to believe that he was overestimating the general speed of traffic and thus
must also have overestimated my speed since based on his statements he was estimating my speed in relation to other vehicles on the freeway.
Also since the officer saw me while accellerating onto the freeway via an elevated onramp and at the time I had my foot off the accelerator thus decelerating it would be difficult if not impossible to
accuratelly estimate my speed by "pacing"
The officer then asked for my license, registration and insurance. I promptly produced the requested documents.
The officer noticed that all the addresses on the documents were Corona addresses. I told him that I had just recently purchased a house in Wildomar.
The officer wrote up most of the ticket and then came back to my window and asked me for my new address.
The officer handed me the ticket to sign and stated "You were going way too fast." I stated "I'm not going to argue with you" and he stated "Well, you could have"
I signed the ticket and was given back my documents. After receiving my copy of the ticket I noticed that he had written "exceeding 100 mph" as the vehicle code violation.
I knew the stated violation was incorrect and decided that although I never have before, I would have to fight the ticket.

 

[CdwJava]

In addition to pacing, the officer could have used radar, lidar, and even visual estimation. The fact that your radar detector may not have gone off is not going to prove he was NOT using radar. Unless you are willing to hire an expert from the Valentine company to come in and debate the state's expert, that claim can likely be brought up, but it is not going to hold any controlling weight.

So, you might want to first seek discovery and find out if radar information is part of the officer's notes or released pursuant to discovery.

- Carl

 

[Zigner]

You don't even have a witness in your defense. Your only witness (YOU!) doesn't even know how fast you were going.
How exactly do you intend to mount a defense?

 

[LucidObscurity]

Re:

Thank you both for your replies.

You are correct; I do not know for sure he did not use radar. All I know is he did not write the radar unit number on the citation and I know that if he had used radar it would not have read 105 mph, but rather something in the 90's. I do plan on filing a discovery for his report and if approved will then know for sure. I do not plan on mentioning my radar detector. In fact I would like to make clear to the judge in my statement that I am not one of those "Ricky Racers" merging all over the road like a drunken eplileptic.

Let's assume radar was not used.

I am aware of my lack of a witness, but thank you for pointing this out. My question is indeed "how should I mount a defense?".

Here are some example declarations (Trial By Declaration (How To) [Archive] - NASIOC however, these mostly deal with questioning the accuracy of the radar and bringing up the speed trap law. I think I may have a case questioning the accuracy of the officer's estimation (read guess) at my speed, but I understand this must be done tactfully. I'm hoping someone on here might be able to provide some assistance in what aspects of this case might be in my favor.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Zigner]

I'm hoping someone on here might be able to provide some assistance in what aspects of this case might be in my favor.

Thanks again for your help.

I'm gonna go with none, per the information you posted.

 

[LucidObscurity]

Re:

Thanks for your opinion.

I still believe someone on here may be able to assist further, but for the sake of others browsing this forum:

The speed I was cited for is only 5% over the speed necessary for the vehicle code violation I was cited for. That being the case, and depending on what I find the officer reports to have based his assertion on) I might be able to question the accuracy of his speedometer (i.e. when was the speedometer last callibrated at 100+ mph, is it beyod a reasonable doubt it could be off by 5% at this speed). Using this approach I may be able to bargain the charge down to VC 22349(a) (exceeding 65 mph) which would be acceptable since I did actually break this law, or get it dismissed.

For those looking for advice instead of critisism - here are a couple sites I've found helpful:

Help! I got a traffic ticket.
Trial By Declaration (How To) [Archive] - NASIOC
Find California Code

Good luck out there.

 

[Zigner]

Thanks for your opinion.

I still believe someone on here may be able to assist further, but for the sake of others browsing this forum:

The speed I was cited for is only 5% over the speed necessary for the vehicle code violation I was cited for. That being the case, and depending on what I find the officer reports to have based his assertion on) I might be able to question the accuracy of his speedometer (i.e. when was the speedometer last callibrated at 100+ mph, is it beyod a reasonable doubt it could be off by 5% at this speed). Using this approach I may be able to bargain the charge down to VC 22349(a) (exceeding 65 mph) which would be acceptable since I did actually break this law, or get it dismissed.

For those looking for advice instead of critisism - here are a couple sites I've found helpful:

Help! I got a traffic ticket.
Trial By Declaration (How To) [Archive] - NASIOC
Find California Code

Good luck out there.

Again, what is your DEFENSE to this charge?

 

[JIMinCA]

Again, what is your DEFENSE to this charge?

Dude... what is wrong with you??? He stated that he was driving under 100mph. That IS a defense. He didn't come here to try to convince you of his innocence, he came here to ask people to help him prepare a defense.

It must be tough......



Lucid,

The first thing to do is file a discovery request. You need to know for sure how he determined your speed. You can then decide on how to proceed with your defense. The "helpigotaticket" website you quoted has good directions on how to prepare your discovery request.

 

[Zigner]

Dude... what is wrong with you??? He stated that he was driving under 100mph. That IS a defense. He didn't come here to try to convince you of his innocence, he came here to ask people to help him prepare a defense.

I disagree. What he said was that he wasn't looking at his speedometer until AFTER he began slowing down.

my estimated speed was in the 90's as I began braking lightly and signaling right. I know this because I glanced down at the speedometer as I was braking and the
needle was slowly moving down in the mid/high 80's region. Based on the gradual rate at which I was decellerating and the amount of time between my
beginning to decellerate and my glancing at my speedometer the maximum speed I reached was somewhere in the mid 90's.

Now, realistically, he has no defense to the charges, as he has no proof (however weak) that he wasn't driving faster than 100 mph.

 

[Maestro64]

As you probably figured out, you are not required to prove the speed you were going. The burden of proof is not on you but the officer unless you follow the ideology of guilty until proven innocent.

In this case since the officer is making a claim of a speed in excess of 100MPH he has to be able to back his claim up with evidence.

Obviously there is three method he could use, visual estimate, which is the least reliable, but most time a comparative measurement to some thing of known reference like another cars speed. The next method is pacing which requires them to match your speed for a defined distance. Lastly the electronic measurement, i.e. radar.

In all case the officer must follow set of well defined procedures for determining someone speed, he can not wing it or pull a number out of the air.

As it was pointed out file a discovery request to have the officer produce the evidence he has against you. Once you have this then you will know how to proceed. I personally do not think using the speed trap law will help you here, if you have any doubts about that read the long thread on that subject.

One last thing, it sounds like you made an admission of a speed of 85MPH and if the officer recorded this information it can be used against you and most people lose in court by their own words, thus the reason he kept asking what your speed was.

 

[JIMinCA]

Now, realistically, he has no defense to the charges, as he has no proof (however weak) that he wasn't driving faster than 100 mph.

Well.... since he came here looking for help with a defense, but you have decided he has no defense, then your input is no longer necessary.

It must be tough....

 

[Zigner]

Well.... since he came here looking for help with a defense, but you have decided he has no defense, then your input is no longer necessary.

It must be tough....

When one decides to defend an indefensible position, one must be prepared for the possibility of losing. Thus, my information is also valuable, and more realistic.

And, I am really not sure why you choose to continue with your attacks (however masked). I would request that you treat me with the same level of courtesy that I have extended to you since our little break.

 

[LucidObscurity]

I'd like to thank everyone who has participated for your valuable input.

I'm not sure if I incriminated myself or not. I did not want to lie to the officer, but also did not want to give anything away. I also found it interesting at the time how he kept pressuring me for an answer to the question of how fast I was going. I wasn't sure if he was looking for an admission of guilt or if he himself did not know. I was sure to preface all my responses with "maybe" and "perhaps..., but I'm not sure". Of course he may have neglegted to include those phrases in his report, but if that's the case then the officer is lying and I'm not sure there's much I can do about that.

Also, I think the hearsay law may apply to anything I said which would mean that the fact that I said what I said is admissible as evidence, but the truthfulness or factuality of what I said is not. From what I've read, the time between the incedent being commented on and the comment itself affects whether or not hearsay can be applied, so I'm not sure if it applies here. Maybe someone with more experience in these matters can shed some light on this one.

Thanks again for all your help. I'll post what I find out from the discovery process.

 

[CdwJava]

If the officer testifies as to what you told him, that's not hearsay.

- Carl

 

[JIMinCA]

Lucid,

Hindsight is 20/20. If I get stopped for speeding and an officer asks how fast I was going, I will probably respond with something like "a safe and reasonable speed". I would never give a number. The cop is not making polite conversation... he is building a case against you. I'll be damned if I am going to help a cop build a case against me... after all, he isn't going to help me with my defense!!

You can do a discovery request to get a copy of his notes. That may give you some advantage in preparing your defense.