radar reflected off side view mirror??

What is the name of your state? MARYLAND

I just got a big ticket in Frederick county, Maryland.

He was waiting at the bottom of a set of hills facing the same direction I was driving with his car's back to me. He told me he shot me using the reflection of his side view mirror from inside of the car.

Does anyone know if that is legal?? It showed a speed much, much higher than I was traveling, NOT EVEN CLOSE!!
(87 in a 40 mph)

Does anyone have any case law or prescient I can work with??

I haven't had a ticket in about 7 years so there is nothing on my record so I need a plan of attack.

I would think there are so many variables and ways for error when using that technique because of the tint of the mirror, magnification, dust, dirt etc that could cause a error signal; not to mention that he could have shot something in front of him or some stray reflection.

Any help would be appreciated THANKS!!

[abezon]

Contest the ticket. Get a book from the library or bookstore on how radar works & argue that the radar could have clocked a car ahead of him or another car behind you. Just because his eyes saw you doesn't mean he had the gun lined up properly so that the gun shot your car & your car only.

I have already started researching radar for a defense, but I have not seen anything showing if that technique is acceptable.

I would think not because of all the added unknowns of using a tinted, curved and magnified side view mirror that is only 4" x 5".

Anyone know any prescient or other case law?? Experience with this??

[abezon]

Look up cases on expert witnesses and new science. Request a copy of the radar gun manual & calibration records. (Use the discovery procedures.) The radar gun manual will list the appropriate ways to get an accurate reading. If the cop used a different method, the burden is on the state to show that their method is accurate & reliable even though the radar gun manufacturer didn't endorse it. "Well, it seems like it should work" is not sufficient.

I doubt tint matters, but curvature or magnification might. See if you can find a physicist (try the local college) to tell you if a radar measurement might be effected by these things.

Radar does not reflect off mirrors. It's radio waves not light waves unless what he was using was not radar. I think you're right he hit something else. AND pointing the radar at his mirror may have distorted the radio waves.

The problem I know I will run into is that Maryland does not have discovery for traffic court.

I hope I can at least get the model gun he used.

I can't seem to find any people who have ever heard about the process of using the side view mirror to reflect the radar onto a car?????

Anyone???

You're not going to find anyone that knows about this technique because it's not a technique for using a radar gun. Radar guns cannot be aimed, the microwaves cannot be bounced off of another surface. A radar gun shoots out microwaves from the front of the radar gun. They radiate outward and the beam gets wider the further away from the radar gun. This officer is just plain ol' full of crap!

A radar gun measures its speed RELATIVE to whatever object it's pointed at. It assumes that it (the radar gun) is stationary but this is not necessarily true. What may have happened is Officer Dumba** pointed the radar at his mirror and being the spastic person he is his arm jerked an inch or so towards the mirror. I would guess you could move your arm at a fairly high MPH speed for one inch or so. So he clocked the speed of his arm towards the mirror at 80 (or whatever he said you were going) and attributed it to you. OR he's just a damn liar and gets away with this ploy all the time (the average dummy just pays the ticket and he meets his secret quota that the State Police claim doesn't exist).

I work for the govt; they get you in the performance review. There isn't a manual around anywhere saying a State Trooper 1 needs to write 100 tickets per month and S.T. 2 needs to supervise 2 Troopers who write at least 200, etc. but you can bet his seargent considers this when checking all those boxes on the Perf. Eval. form. Afterall, what is his job anyway, why do the taxpayers pay his salary? To write tickets, of course.