Wrongful Suspended, Wrong Way on One Way

[JoeDS]

What is the name of your state? Virginia


Alright, almost exactly a year ago I was convicted of reckless driving and my license was suspended for three months. I was told that if, after six months, I hadn't committed any other moving violations, the sentence would be reduced to improper driving. I was fine for those six months, showed up for court on October 25, the judge glanced at my record and said everything looked good, my record would be changed. Sounded great until I received notice about a week later saying that, instead of my sentence being reduced, the DMV had been told that I had been convicted of an improper driving charge on October 25 and my license was suspended indefinitely. Naturally, I wanted this all cleared up as fast as possible, so I called the traffic court. After a couple days of being told to call back the next day while they sorted stuff out with the DMV, the woman I talked with told me that everything had been cleared up and that my record was fixed on the computer.

Last night, I took a wrong exit off of 395 and wound up next to the Pentagon. I was trying to cross back under the highway, so I drove very slowly along the access roads looking for the right turn. I saw it, but the road I was on had been divided in two by a concrete barrier. I had to back up about five feet to make the turn, with no one else on the road. Immediately, there were flashing lights behind me. A cop stopped me for driving the wrong way on a one-way street and ran my license through the system. He found that it was still suspended, so I was ticketed for driving with a suspended license, and my car was impounded.

Now, first of all, does reversing to make a turn legally qualify as driving the wrong way on a one-way street? Are there any provisions for adjusting to make a turn, repositioning your vehicle, or going in reverse in general? And, the more important question, how do I handle the license matter? I'm going back to the first traffic court tomorrow to get documentation that my sentence was, in fact, reduced, and I was never convicted of another improper driving charge. The problem is, they technically sent me notification that my license was suspended, and I never received written notification that it had been fixed. Will my phone call story hold up (I have a witness for the actual phone call, he heard the woman explain everything), or do I need to try to find the woman I talked with and see if I can somehow get her to remember a phone call from five months ago?

Oh, and one more question... technically, the Pentagon is federal ground. I have to appear in federal court. From the legal code, it appears that I've been charged by VA state laws, but is it posible that there would be some sort of federal law I have to deal with, and will the federal courts be different than VA state courts?