Bogus "Driving to Endanger". Need Help

[MTT]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts

In Febuary I was traveling back home and entered a rotary I have been through 6-7 times. I was within the speed limit. I was not entering the rotary itself but going straight through it. There is a yield sign as to allow people to enter the rotary infront of you. It was raining, night time and visibility was poor. There had been some type of accident and a flatbed was beyond the rotary on the right hand side of the road parked and loaded up with a car on the back. As I approached the rotary I saw a police officer with her back turned wearing their lime green raincoat. I proceeded forward and took my foot off the gas as any SANE person would do considering a cop was 400 feet infront of me.

Here is where the **** hits the fan. As I approached the yield sign, I slowed down. There was no traffic coming in any direction. I proceeded forward. Now the officer was facing me and was on the left side of the road in the grass "Island" of the rotary. I did not see her car nor any lights but obviously was cautious as I saw the flatbed ahead and the officer to the left. The officer began making hang signals. It was pouring outside and I asssumed she was directing traffic and summoning me to continue fourth. I did so. As I got closer to her I realized instead of motioning with her palms toward her she was doing a rapid "Slow down motion". I was kind of surprised and taken aback as I passed her and could hear her saying "slow down". I had a passenger in the car and she had the same reaction as me "what was that about? you werent speeding". In any case I went home. A few days later I received a citation in the mail stating "Failure to yield at rotary" and the big one.. "Operating a MV Neglicently as to endanger". On the citation I was instructed to meet with the magistrate. NO speed was listed nor was a fine listed.

2 months later I just got out of the magistrate after my hearing with her and the officer. I explained it as best I could but couldnt help but feel overwhelmed as I'm telling my story and the magistrate is shaking her head and checking her watch. At first she said something about how it would not go to court, she would instead do something with 3 months and a $200 court fee(?) and that would be it. She asked the officer if that was "alright" and she took a second and said yes. I pushed the fact that I believed she was summoning me forward and was directing traffic, not telling me to slow down with her palms towards me. The officer blatantly lied and said that she was watching me approach the rotary from affar at a "decent clip". When I heard the $200 fee I was asked if that was ok or If I'd like to take it to court. In my mind this whole thing is completely silly so I once again tried to make my point hoping I could get out of it scot free. After I said something the cop made another statement. The magistrate then says "I changed my mind, im sending this to court".

I am very shocked right now and I have no idea what to do. This entire case seems subjective as I KNOW for a fact the officers back was turned until I was already slowing down for the yield. She has no proof of how fast I was going. I KNOW for a fact again that I was going at an ok speed and I yielded in the manor everyone else does as they go through that particular rotary with no other cars in sight. Again, this just seems entirely subjective by itself even if you remove the fact that I didn't slow down even more BECAUSE I THOUGHT IN THE POOR WEATHER SHE WAS DIRECTING ME TO GO FORWARD. What should my next step be? Looking back and trying to figure out my speed I am completely positive I wasn't out of the realm of being reasonable speed wise and I did slow down to yield(no cars coming left nor right, just the officer and flatbed ahead).

[davew128]

Take it to the judge. I would also question how the officer was able to identify you as the driver given the conditions, night time, and your windows up. Off the top though, I would say the failure to yield portion is bogus on its face because although MA law requires vehicles entering a rotary to yield to those already IN the rotary, you stated there was no traffic, so there was nothing for you to yield TO.

[Maestro64]

The Magistrate job in Mass is to ensure you agree to pay. Just appeal the decision and take in front of the judge.

As davew said the officer while have to justify how you failed to yield. You best course of action is to first get the officer to clearly state what the conditions were at the time and what the traffic conditions were. If they say the weather was bad and there was no cars then ask how did you violate the law when it state you must yield to traffic which was in the traffic circle, since there was none then you do not need to yield. Then ask the officer where their patrol car was and was it emergence light on, did the officer have a flash light or orange color penny on so they were clearly visible to everyone around and they were attempting to slow traffic.

For all you knew there was a person standing on the island and you have no idea who they were or what purpose there were surveying. The law does not require you to be a mind reader or assume someone waving there hand was trying to direct traffic.

[Orcons]

Originally Posted by MTT

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts

In Febuary I was traveling back home and entered a rotary I have been through 6-7 times. I was within the speed limit. I was not entering the rotary itself but going straight through it. There is a yield sign as to allow people to enter the rotary infront of you. It was raining, night time and visibility was poor. There had been some type of accident and a flatbed was beyond the rotary on the right hand side of the road parked and loaded up with a car on the back. As I approached the rotary I saw a police officer with her back turned wearing their lime green raincoat. I proceeded forward and took my foot off the gas as any SANE person would do considering a cop was 400 feet infront of me.

Here is where the **** hits the fan. As I approached the yield sign, I slowed down. There was no traffic coming in any direction. I proceeded forward. Now the officer was facing me and was on the left side of the road in the grass "Island" of the rotary. I did not see her car nor any lights but obviously was cautious as I saw the flatbed ahead and the officer to the left. The officer began making hang signals. It was pouring outside and I asssumed she was directing traffic and summoning me to continue fourth. I did so. As I got closer to her I realized instead of motioning with her palms toward her she was doing a rapid "Slow down motion". I was kind of surprised and taken aback as I passed her and could hear her saying "slow down". I had a passenger in the car and she had the same reaction as me "what was that about? you werent speeding". In any case I went home. A few days later I received a citation in the mail stating "Failure to yield at rotary" and the big one.. "Operating a MV Neglicently as to endanger". On the citation I was instructed to meet with the magistrate. NO speed was listed nor was a fine listed.

2 months later I just got out of the magistrate after my hearing with her and the officer. I explained it as best I could but couldnt help but feel overwhelmed as I'm telling my story and the magistrate is shaking her head and checking her watch. At first she said something about how it would not go to court, she would instead do something with 3 months and a $200 court fee(?) and that would be it. She asked the officer if that was "alright" and she took a second and said yes. I pushed the fact that I believed she was summoning me forward and was directing traffic, not telling me to slow down with her palms towards me. The officer blatantly lied and said that she was watching me approach the rotary from affar at a "decent clip". When I heard the $200 fee I was asked if that was ok or If I'd like to take it to court. In my mind this whole thing is completely silly so I once again tried to make my point hoping I could get out of it scot free. After I said something the cop made another statement. The magistrate then says "I changed my mind, im sending this to court".

I am very shocked right now and I have no idea what to do. This entire case seems subjective as I KNOW for a fact the officers back was turned until I was already slowing down for the yield. She has no proof of how fast I was going. I KNOW for a fact again that I was going at an ok speed and I yielded in the manor everyone else does as they go through that particular rotary with no other cars in sight. Again, this just seems entirely subjective by itself even if you remove the fact that I didn't slow down even more BECAUSE I THOUGHT IN THE POOR WEATHER SHE WAS DIRECTING ME TO GO FORWARD. What should my next step be? Looking back and trying to figure out my speed I am completely positive I wasn't out of the realm of being reasonable speed wise and I did slow down to yield(no cars coming left nor right, just the officer and flatbed ahead).

You should get a lawyer. Operating to endanger is a serious offense in MA, you could lose your license and in any case your insurance would take a very substantial hit. In fact, and I know this does not help you now, you should have gotten a lawyer for the hearing before the magistrate. There are limited circumstances in MA where they can send you a ticket in the mail which a lawyer could have argued were not met. You also had one possible defense that you can't use now, i.e., it was not you driving (since it looks like you admitted to the magistrate that it was you). As someone else noted the failure to yield was probably just thrown in there, and you can probably get a judge to throw that one out but you are unlikely to get both tossed on your own.

Was it a criminal charge? If so that is even more reason to get an attorney. If you do decide to go it alone you better do some homework. Get info on what exactly was going on that night, get copies of both sides of the cop's ticket, records of the weather, etc. And look up exactly what you were charged with and understand the elements of the offense.

Good luck.

[MTT]

Will I be appointed a lawyer if I choose not to get my own? What a mess this is turning in to.. unreal.

[Maestro64]

No lawyer will be appointed, unless it is truly a criminal offense and their is possibility of jail time. If that is true, then you will have to show the court you do not have the means to pay.

The reason for the recommendation of getting a lawyer is because if this is as serious of a infraction as Orcons has pointed out you have more to loose doing this yourself than what a lawyer will cost. In most traffic ticket if you loose in court you pay a fine, get your points and pay hire insurance for a period of time. However, in more serious traffic issue lots of other things could come into play and most of us have no idea what could happen.

You do have a right to appeal the decision, however it time limited when you can do that

[davew128]

I am fairly certain this IS a criminal matter. Ordinary citations in MA are civil issues and do not go to an appearance before a magistrate unless the ticket is appealed. What this was is a show cause hearing, where the magistrate decides if the Comonwealth can proceed with the criminal charge of "Operating a MV Neglicently as to endanger". It sounds like they were ready to offer you a three month pre-pre-trial probation with $200 costs and you wouldn't be arraigned on the charge.

This charge is MGL CH. 90, Sec. 24 (2). Maximum sentence is two years and a $200 fine. It is also why you were summoned and not arrested at the scene.

My honest take on this is YOU NEED A LAWYER NOW. You are now facing an arraignment on a criminal charge. You were offered a deal to stay out of court and you due to your own ignorance of what was happening, blew it. Whether that was the right approach is up for discussion if this is truly a bogus charge. However now you will have a CORI record of a criminal charge, win or lose.

[Ozark_Sophist]

You should have paid the $200 in costs and avoided a headache. It wouldn't have gone on your record if you had no additional tickets in the time specified.

[MTT]

Thats the thing. She said that was what she had decided upon.. the 3 month/200$ fine. She "asked" the cop if that was "alright". The cop said yes. She looked at me and asked if that was fine or if I'd like to take it to court. I said yes, and repeated what I said said earlier about the misjudging of what the cop was doing due to the weather conditions. The cop then said something again and that was when the lady said "I changed my mind, I am sending this to court". At that point I really didn't know what to say as this entire thing just seems ridiculous to me. I was never speeding at any point, the cop has no proof of me speeding. As she said, I was going at a "decent clip". When I passed her after I thought she was issuing me to proceed forward and I then realized she was instead motion with her palms facing me to "slow down" I did so but was still surprised by it as I wasn't speeding to begin with.

[MTT]

I've talked to a few friends I have in the area and they all say she is the only officer in this particular town that is female. She apparently is "well known" to be on the rather.. harsh side. Thats fine and all as I can't attest to that.. but in my case I find this almost mindboggling how it is evolving into this. Failure to yield with no other cars in the area, rain and poor visibility and a cop making wild hand signals from afar that I thought was directing me fourth. She also lied about her cruisers lights being on and her watching me as I approached. I specifically asked my passenger "Is that a cop?" because her back was turned and she was in the grassy island of the rotary as I approached the yield. It is when she told the magistrate that her back WASN'T turned hinting that I was lying that she suddenly "changed" her mind and decided this was going to court.

[Maestro64]

The next time you confront the officer, ask her if she has been trained in traffic control and all the proper hand signals and the such. Every time I have seen police managing a accident scene where they could not close the road, they had flares on the ground to let people know they needed to slow down, the officer directing traffic usually had an orange safety vest on and they sometime had some sort of flash light flare in their hands or a flag to get people attention. The also used proper hand signal about whether to proceed, stop, turn or slow down.

To your point, you were ticketed after the fact by an officer who was not obviously properly train in the how to manage traffic at traffic incident. How are you expect to follow a direction from an officer if they have no idea what they were signaling.

Remember the officer has the burned of proof to establish they did everything properly.

It is too late to worry about that the magistrate did, focus on how to proceed with the judge.

[MTT]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm not fishing for people to side with me. What I am saying is the truth of how it went down. Judging from the way this is turning out I feel as if I am a criminal who was blatantly speeding on a pouring night and tried to run down a cop. Unreal.

I appreciate posts of any kind. Does anyone have any experience with a good attorney in the Central Mass/Conneticut/general area? I would say I don't want to pay an arm and a leg but I am more concerned with clearing my name from this nonsense.