refused the discovery process

[ekgrow21]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I went in personally to deny my speeding ticket and asked the traffic violations office, court office, and court filing office how I should ask for documents such as radar maintenance records, tuning fork certificate, etc. and was told I could not. They said they only way I could get these things was to hire an attorney. I thought it was one of my rights to be able to ask for these things (subpoena/discovery). Is there anything I can do?

[I_Got_Banned]

Court clerks are not allowed to give legal advice... Nor are the obligated to oblige your verbal request. Send in a written request!

Address it to the prosecuting attorney and have a copy filed with the court...

[ekgrow21]

What if I do not know who the prosecuting attorney is? Should I just mail it to court office addressed to "prosecuting attorney." I wouldn't think that would do the trick.

[FlyingRon]

Send it to the Prosecutor (there is one per County in Indiana).
While your case will be handled by an assistant prosecutor, the named one is the one you direct your requests to.

[ekgrow21]

Thanks for all the help so far.

Does anyone have any tips for the letter? Should I wait a for a certain time before I send it?

Here is what I am asking for: radar repair records, manufacturers manual and specifications, calibration log, and dept.'s FCC license to operate; tuning fork certificate of accuracy and repair/calibration records; arrest record three months prior to offense to day of, daily log for the day of offense, radar training record, operator's certification, and copies of citation (both sides); Speedometer calibration certificate and repair/maintenance records and repair/service records for patrol car. Did I miss anything?

[racer72]

Originally Posted by ekgrow21

Thanks for all the help so far.

Does anyone have any tips for the letter? Should I wait a for a certain time before I send it?

Here is what I am asking for: radar repair records,1. manufacturers manual and specifications, calibration log, and dept.'s FCC license to operate; tuning fork certificate of accuracy and repair/calibration records; 2.arrest record three months prior to offense to day of, daily log for the day of offense, radar training record, operator's certification, and copies of citation (both sides); 3. Speedometer calibration certificate and repair/maintenance records and repair/service records for patrol car. Did I miss anything?

Yep, forget about the bolded above. 1. Manufactures manuals are considered proprietory information and will not be released to the general public. You might get the training manual. 2. Irrelevant to your case, could compromise future prosecutions, 3. If you were caught by radar and not paced, irrelevant to your case.

Looks like you got all the above from one of those websites that claims you can beat your ticket by baffling the court and the system with BS instead of sound legal manuevering. The courts have likely seen this many times. Also, unless you can provide an expert on the used of much of the above, you will not be able to use it yourself. 99.9% of the folks on the road have no clue on how to read the tuning fork calibration results. This many actually be irrelevant in itself, most radar guns used today have built in self calibration, no tuning forks required. I have seen this tried in traffic court a number of times and it rarely works.

[I_Got_Banned]

Originally Posted by ekgrow21

dept.'s FCC license to operate

Just out of curiosity, can anyone point me to any state statute that says a police department has to have an FCC license to operate Radar equipment!

Or cite a case where the lack of such information ended up in a dismissal of a speeding violation!!!

[FlyingRon]

State and Local governments must have the radio license.
The more operative question is why operating a radar without it has any bearing on the validity of the speed observations made with it.