Hello all,
As promised, I have returned with a result to an issue I posted in the thread a few months back:
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=244342&page=1&pp=15
To cut to the chase the prosecuter made a deal. I plead guilty to 69MPH in a 65. The fine is the same, but carried no points. win:win.
I can now reveal the "Holy Mary" defense I described in the original thread. For those of you without the time to read through the whole thread, I was preparing a multi-layered defense, to a speeding ticket (80 in a 65) and this was the last resort.
My first defense layer failed due to my own ignorance (more on that in a bit) but then the second was to avoid a trial altogether, and ultimately that's what happened.
The Hail Mary would have happened during trial, and I hoped would go something like this:
(Part of the strategy was to build a rhythym in the officer's answers)
Me: Officer XXX, can you please describe the distance at which you targetted my car with the laser unit?
Officer: about 100 yards.
Me: Officer XXX, you were stationary at the time?
Officer: Yes.
Me: Did you have a clear view of my vehicle?
Officer: yes
Me: Officer XXX, have you completed a training course in the use of this laser unit?
Officer: Yes, I am certified blah, blah, blah
Me: Officer XXX, does this unit report any type of "lock" signal indicating that you have targeted a vehicle?
Officer: (answer doesn't really matter)
Me: Officer, how many readings were you able to get off of my license plate?
Officer: I took 3 readings.
Me: Your honor, motion to dismiss Officer XXX as an unreliable witness.
Judge: On what grounds?
Me: Your honor, he just testified that he got 3 readings off of my front plate. My car is registered in KY and doesn't have a front plate.
Would it have worked? Highly doubtful, but as I said - it was a last resort kind of thing. I almost wish I could have tried it just to see what would have happened.
Now about the failed first defense: if I had been smarter, I think I had a very good chance of getting this dismissed outright, but I made a stupid mistake out of ignorance.
The officer wrote in the wrong code violation on my citation. Where it should have said something like 812D1 he wrote 81201. There was really no way that it could have been a D, because there were 3 other D's on the ticket, and they were all clear as day - this was obviously a 0.
According to the code, the violation must be on the ticket. I couldn't make a plea to violating a non-existant code.
So I objected before I even entered a plea, based on defect of the citation.
The prosecutor moved to ammend the ticket. I wasn't expecting that. I didn't know he could do that. I was temporariily stunned. I plead Not Guilty.
I shouldn't have given up. I should have objected in 2 ways; first of all, the prosecutor was not a witness to the violation, so he really had no foundation to change the charge. Second, according to code, (I found out later) to properly ammend a ticket I should have been issued a new citation. As the prosecuter didn't have a ticket book, he'd have hard a hard time doing that.
All moot, of course, because I just sat there and entered a plea.
So while that didn't work for me, let it be a lesson for someone else. Always check to make sure that you meet all the criteria for the exact violation that you were charged with and that everything on the ticket is proper. (He also miswrote my zip code on the ticket, but I wasn't going to go after that)
As promised, I have returned with a result to an issue I posted in the thread a few months back:
https://forum.freeadvice.com/showthread.php?t=244342&page=1&pp=15
To cut to the chase the prosecuter made a deal. I plead guilty to 69MPH in a 65. The fine is the same, but carried no points. win:win.
I can now reveal the "Holy Mary" defense I described in the original thread. For those of you without the time to read through the whole thread, I was preparing a multi-layered defense, to a speeding ticket (80 in a 65) and this was the last resort.
My first defense layer failed due to my own ignorance (more on that in a bit) but then the second was to avoid a trial altogether, and ultimately that's what happened.
The Hail Mary would have happened during trial, and I hoped would go something like this:
(Part of the strategy was to build a rhythym in the officer's answers)
Me: Officer XXX, can you please describe the distance at which you targetted my car with the laser unit?
Officer: about 100 yards.
Me: Officer XXX, you were stationary at the time?
Officer: Yes.
Me: Did you have a clear view of my vehicle?
Officer: yes
Me: Officer XXX, have you completed a training course in the use of this laser unit?
Officer: Yes, I am certified blah, blah, blah
Me: Officer XXX, does this unit report any type of "lock" signal indicating that you have targeted a vehicle?
Officer: (answer doesn't really matter)
Me: Officer, how many readings were you able to get off of my license plate?
Officer: I took 3 readings.
Me: Your honor, motion to dismiss Officer XXX as an unreliable witness.
Judge: On what grounds?
Me: Your honor, he just testified that he got 3 readings off of my front plate. My car is registered in KY and doesn't have a front plate.
Would it have worked? Highly doubtful, but as I said - it was a last resort kind of thing. I almost wish I could have tried it just to see what would have happened.
Now about the failed first defense: if I had been smarter, I think I had a very good chance of getting this dismissed outright, but I made a stupid mistake out of ignorance.
The officer wrote in the wrong code violation on my citation. Where it should have said something like 812D1 he wrote 81201. There was really no way that it could have been a D, because there were 3 other D's on the ticket, and they were all clear as day - this was obviously a 0.
According to the code, the violation must be on the ticket. I couldn't make a plea to violating a non-existant code.
So I objected before I even entered a plea, based on defect of the citation.
The prosecutor moved to ammend the ticket. I wasn't expecting that. I didn't know he could do that. I was temporariily stunned. I plead Not Guilty.
I shouldn't have given up. I should have objected in 2 ways; first of all, the prosecutor was not a witness to the violation, so he really had no foundation to change the charge. Second, according to code, (I found out later) to properly ammend a ticket I should have been issued a new citation. As the prosecuter didn't have a ticket book, he'd have hard a hard time doing that.
All moot, of course, because I just sat there and entered a plea.
So while that didn't work for me, let it be a lesson for someone else. Always check to make sure that you meet all the criteria for the exact violation that you were charged with and that everything on the ticket is proper. (He also miswrote my zip code on the ticket, but I wasn't going to go after that)
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