How I defeated my citation and was victorious in court.

[mikeshoe]

What is the name of your state? Washington State

Today was court.
I had requested a contested hearing.
The officer had written on the ticket that I violated RCW 46.61.231
There is no RCW 46.61.231
The applicable RCW would've been RCW 46.61.235
In plain english the officer had written the correct verbage of the citation, just the wrong digits in the law.
I was prepared to fight the ticket a number of other ways. Although there were some inconsistencies in his statement on the back. After waiting for 20+ other contested hearings to go first, the officer that wrote the stuff on the back of the ticket did a significantly better job than all but one other citation.
Regardless I made my first motion to have the citation dismissed based on the prejudication of my special rights, ie I wasn't allowed the fair opportunity to prepare a fully cohesive legal defense to a non existant statute.
I've had countless people tell me a simple error like that wouldn't matter (hence my extreme amount of preparation to combat the details of the ticket).
The Judge listened to my statement about the non-existant statute, gave me a "Oh really?" look, whipped out a copy of the RCW, attempted to find 46.61.231, failed to find 46.61.231 and prompted dismissed the ticket.

I found this small statement to be the most helpful in deciding to combat my ticket.

Will errors on the ticket result in the charges being dropped?
Courts will often excuse minor errors on a ticket. A misspelled name, incorrect address or difference in opinion on whether your car is aqua or green in color will not result in a dismissed ticket. Conversely, a major error such as citing the wrong statute, radically misidentifying your vehicle or listing the wrong highway as the site of the violation should provide justification to dismiss the ticket. However, it may be advantageous to say nothing about the errors until your trial. Let the officer use the ticket to describe the violation, location, and identification of your vehicle (they all do). After he or she has sufficiently buried him or herself with perjured testimony, you can document the errors and any legitimate court will dismiss the charges.


Good luck to all citation fighters!!!

[You Are Guilty]

Hate to burst your bubble, but "without prejudice" means the officer can now go correct the statute number he cited you for and refile the corrected ticket. He might not actually do it, but now he has the option.

I'd keep working on the remainder of your defense if I were you though.

[mikeshoe]

I'd rate the odds of someone reissuing this ticket at about a million to one. There's just no way some officer has time to review his dismissed tickets (if he even gets notified of it) and take the effort to reissue them. Sure he "could" reissue but I don't think people are that bored.

Originally Posted by You Are Guilty

Hate to burst your bubble, but "without prejudice" means the officer can now go correct the statute number he cited you for and refile the corrected ticket. He might not actually do it, but now he has the option.

I'd keep working on the remainder of your defense if I were you though.

I noticed writer significantly edited his post after your post.

That's always a good sign someone has something to hide.

[mikeshoe]

I removed the words "without prejudice" from the original post. They don't actually appear on the dismissal form, my mistake. The judged circled "d", presumably for dismissed and gave me the form that they use to track the ticket, the form they would've written the fine amount on.

Originally Posted by mikeshoe

I removed the words "without prejudice" from the original post. They don't actually appear on the dismissal form, my mistake. The judged circled "d", presumably for dismissed and gave me the form that they use to track the ticket, the form they would've written the fine amount on.

Sounds like it could still be refiled because jeopardy has not attached.

War story:

I just found a defendant not guilty because the prosecutor put NO statute on the charging papers. During the bench trial, I kept asking both sides what statute number the defendant was charged under. Neither the defense attorney (a dim bulb) nor the prosecutor (a dimmer bulb) ever addressed the issue.

(I kept expecting the defense attorney to finally see the light and jump up and shout, "Jeopardy has attached! There's no statute on the charging papers! We win!" Instead, he kept shuffling papers in his file, trying to figure out who, exactly, his client was...couldn't remember the name.)

Needless to say, that defendant had a lucky day in court because that charge can never be refiled.

Sorry for the story. But good for you. If the cop can't put the right number of the statute on the ticket, it should be dismissed WITH prejudice.

But that's just my opinion.