Indiana, Considering Appeal of 5 Citations on One Stop

[nate811]

What is the name of your state?Indiana (Fort Wayne)

I am considering appealing tickets from a situation where I was pulled over by an officer looking to let off some steam. I was issued 5 tickets as follows:

1. Seat belt
2. Wrong way on one way (code was wrong judge changed to speeding, officer wrote paced at 55 in a 40)
3. Unsafe lane movement (code changed by judge to change lane without signal)
4. Lane change without signal
5. Lane change without signal

Judge laughed at my questions and upheld all 5 violations. I am considering appealing but don’t know if I have a legal basis. Here are some considerations.

1. Was the law applied to me fairly? Officer was recently moved to crime scene division and received 3 complaints from pull overs within the past 30 days. Judge would not let me ask questions about the officer (to establish that she treated me unfairly).

2. Can the judge just change the violations and then upheld them? Shouldn’t I have a chance to prepare my defense. I was found guilty of charges that I was not even made aware of or accused of until during trial when the judge changed the codes from those written on the tickets.

3. The department limits officers to writing 3 citations but she wrote 5. (I didn’t learn this until after the trial).

4. Is it possible to research officer’s statements, if so could the decision be reversed if she was stretching the truth? I asked how many tickets she had given out for not signaling lane changes and she answered “a lot”. (I spoke to two other officers who had NEVER given out a ticket for not using signal. This is why in #1 I think I was treated unfairly, Any other officer likely would have just given me a seat belt citation).

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[BelizeBreeze]

Was the law applied to me fairly?

Fair or not, it was within judicial discretion.

Can the judge just change the violations and then upheld them?

Yep.

The department limits officers to writing 3 citations but she wrote 5. (I didn’t learn this until after the trial).

Irrelevant

Is it possible to research officer’s statements, if so could the decision be reversed if she was stretching the truth?

Unless a court reporter was in the room no. And even if there was, you would have to prove perjury. Forget it.

It really sucks being you I guess

[CdwJava]

Originally Posted by nate811

1. Was the law applied to me fairly? Officer was recently moved to crime scene division and received 3 complaints from pull overs within the past 30 days. Judge would not let me ask questions about the officer (to establish that she treated me unfairly).

How you found out about complaints against the officer is beyond me - in my state you would not get that information so easily.

Besides, the complaints are probably irrelevant unless they were regarding the officer falsifying charges on citations. Being accused of being rude is not grounds to demonstrate that you were treated "unfairly".

Besides the law does not say you have to b etreated fairly, only that you are to be treated lawfully. There can be a difference.

2. Can the judge just change the violations and then upheld them?

Apparently, yes.

Shouldn’t I have a chance to prepare my defense. I was found guilty of charges that I was not even made aware of or accused of until during trial when the judge changed the codes from those written on the tickets.

I would think so. And that may be grounds for an appeal. But you may need to consult an attorney as to how this is best done.

3. The department limits officers to writing 3 citations but she wrote 5. (I didn’t learn this until after the trial).

Not relevant. This might be a policy issue, not a legal one. And I wonder why a department would limit officers in such a way?

4. Is it possible to research officer’s statements, if so could the decision be reversed if she was stretching the truth? I asked how many tickets she had given out for not signaling lane changes and she answered “a lot”. (I spoke to two other officers who had NEVER given out a ticket for not using signal. This is why in #1 I think I was treated unfairly, Any other officer likely would have just given me a seat belt citation).

It doesn't matter. Even if you were the first. The issue is not that you were treated "unfairly" but that you were treated legally.

Unless you were discriminated against because of a legally protected status, then the officer certainly has a right to cite you for 5 violations. And as long as his actions were lawful, then even if these were the first tickets he ever wrote, they were good to go.

- Carl

[nate811]

Quote:
How you found out about complaints against the officer is beyond me -in my state you would not get that information so easily.

I filed a written complaint after the incident and was called in (after the court appearance) by a captain to record my complaint against the officer. The captain indicated that the officer had recently been moved to the crime scene division, and that this can be emotionally challenging for an officer. The captain indicated that this was the third complaint within 30 days and the officer was likely to removed from that division. The captain said that the officer was being evaluated for 1. improper conduct during the pullover and 2. violation of department policy for writing more than 3 violations. (the department would rather focus on the worse violations than have numerous citations to deal with).