Moving Violation for Parking?

I am a truck driver in Virginia. I parked my truck on the shoulder of a highway next to a no parking sign while I walked into a restaraunt bordering the highway. When I returned I found a sheriff's deputy waiting for me. When I told him that I was the driver of the vehicle, he proceeded to write a ticket for "Failure to obey a highway sign." This is a moving violation. Can I be found guilty of a moving violation when I was not in the vehicle? I was prepared to pay a fine for parking illegally but I don't need three points on a CDL. Thanks for any advice.

[JETX]

As I see it, here are the appropriate statutes in the Virginia Code:
"§ 46.2-830. Uniform marking and signing of highways; drivers to obey signs; enforcement of section.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board may classify, designate, and mark state highways and provide a uniform system of marking and signing such highways under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. Such system of marking and signing shall correlate with and, so far as possible, conform to the system adopted in other states.

All drivers of vehicles shall obey lawfully erected signs.

No provision of this section relating to the prohibition of disobeying signs or violating local traffic signals, markings, and lights shall be enforced against an alleged violator if, at the time and place of the alleged violation, any such sign, signal, marking, or light is not in proper position and sufficiently legible to be seen by an ordinarily observant person."

According to the Virginia DMV, this violation is a 3 point 'hit' and stays for three years.
Source: [url]http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/citizen/drivers/points_assess.asp[/url]

Suggestion: Depending on the circumstances, you might claim that you had parked there for purposes of 'sleeping or resting". If you can, then this statute would be of help:
"§ 46.2-830.1. Failure to obey highway sign where driver sleeping or resting.
Upon the trial of a person charged with failure to obey a highway sign in violation of § 46.2-830 where the court finds that the violation resulted from the vehicle having been parked or stopped by the driver on the shoulder or other portion of the highway not ordinarily used for vehicular traffic in order for the driver to sleep or rest, the court may, in lieu of convicting under § 46.2-830, find the driver guilty of violating this section, which shall be a lesser-included offense of § 46.2-830. No demerit points shall be assigned pursuant to the Uniform Demerit Point System for convictions pursuant to this section."
Source:
[url]http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+TOC46020000008000000000000[/url]