reckless driving (pace) - they are not seeking jail time

[Mellon]

Virginia.

I got cited for 80 in a 55 last week by pace in an unmarked police car.

edited ....

Okay that's an eyeful. thanks in advance.

 

[FlyingRon]

The officer stopped and then pulled his vehicle 30 degrees forward away from the highway. I realized traffic was whipping by us, so I proceeded to put my key back in the ignition and make the same manuever.

He does this to provide his headlights to illuminate the scene and to provide limitted protection for him approaching your window. You should not have moved the car. Moving the car after you've stopped and he's exitted his vehicle makes them very, very apprehensive.

Reckless driving in Virginia is a serious charge. You need a lawyer. If you are not indigent enough to qualify, you'll need to beg or borrow the money for one. The VA surcharges are the least of your worry. You or your lawyer will need to see if the commonwealth's attorney will reduce the charge to some non-misdemeanor infraction. The cop at this point has no discretion.

Unless you have other issues a misdemeanor traffic issue probably won't affect a security clearance. I've got guys working for me who went to jail on a reckless driving and still got more clearance than you'll probably ever have.

Your insurance will probably go up irregardless. The usual plea-down is to careless driving which many insurers will consider to be a more serious than your garden variety speeding.

 

[Mellon]

Just to clear up:

He pulled me over at 4pm. So there was no illumination issue, we were close to the highway, it was the only way he could open his car door without getting hit by car. He stopped first. I stopped and turned of my ignition. He was still stopped behind me and then he started to pull forwared 30 degrees. I did the same so he could approach my driver's side. Instead he came to my passenger side.

When he gave me the citation, he thanked me for pulling farther away from the highway.

I appreciate the legal advice. The officer doesn't think I'll get charged with reckless driving, he'd recommend knocking it down to 74mph was what he said to me.

As far as my clearence goes, I did not want to get in a bragging contest, I would not have posted this here, if I was not concerned. I have held a TS with higher caveats to special projects over a decade. I don't want to detail to a special investigator what a class 1 misdemeanor by speed means on my background investigtation. It's not a scenario I want to risk. Hence my concern about an RD charge, even if the officer thinks it's unlikely that is what the charge will be. He doesn't get to make that decision, a judge does.

At any rate, I've consulted with an attorney and he thinks it will get dropped if not reduced w/ Driver Improvment school.

Thanks for the advice, god bless.

 

[Mellon]

update

Went to court, we got lucky with a substitute judge. The judge was basically allowing anyone that plead guilty to do driver improvement school, to be continued and dismissed when they completed it and showed up for the next court date.

I already had +2 on my VA license before Driver improvement school and 00 on my old MD license. I did driver improvement school before court.

My attorney got the charges dismissed, because the officer's calibration had expired and it was an older vehicle, so they did not have reasonable doubt.

I paid more than those that plead guilty and got it dismissed with driver's school.

My question is, Nolle Prosequi shows up on my "reckless by speed" charge. I was never arrested, it was a summons to appear in court. Nolle Prosequi, means they will no longer prosecute, because they did not have a strong case, commonwealth dropped it.

Since they dropped the charge and I was never arrested, my attorney says it won't show up on my record. Yet now I'm reading that Nolle Prosequi will show up on your record for at least 13 months.

Is this true and do I have to report a reckless by speed charge that was not prosecuted?

 

[FlyingRon]

Don't sweat the null pros. The real implication of the record is that in the case of another speeding it might disuade the commonwealth's attorney to thinking you're squeaky clean and offer a deal.

What do you think you have to report it to?