Hi everyone, I have a question and was wondering if any of you had any advice on this subject matter. I was on the way home from the airport tonight and was leaving. There was this big tunnel coming up and I wanted to hear my exhaust notes so I dropped the car into 2nd and gave it some gas. While I was doing this, I was well under the speed posted speed limit of 45 mph. No other cars were around as this was around 930pm. To my surprise, there was an unmarked SUV police car behind me that decided to pull me over after seeing this. The officer tells me that he saw what I did and asked what my hurry was. I was completely honest and said that I was not in a hurry, but just wanted to hear my exhaust note, to which he replied "I admit, it did sound pretty good out there". I never once, however admitted to speeding and I still am not. I only said that I wanted to hear the exhaust.

Fast forward, the officer ends up giving me a ticket with a citation for speeding of 60 in a 45. Now here are the problems. First of all, under address, the officer put a completely wrong address for me that is no where listed on my insurance or driver's license. It is the address of my old house and I do not know how he got it, so the house #, street, city, and zipcode are all wrong. It is not just a minor error. Second the detection method written on the ticket is "visual/pace". Not once did my Valentine One go off. That, along with the fact that the officer wrote visual pace shows that he did not use any sort of radar. His whole reason for pulling me over was because it "looked" like I was speeding. To me, it sounds like he saw a sports car with an aggressive exhaust accelerating and decided to see if he could get away with issuing a ticket. Before he had turned his lights on to pull me over, he was at least 300-400 meters behind me. How in any way can that be an accurate detection to say someone is speeding based purely on what the officer can "visually" see at that distance. Any car from that distance can look like its speeding. Now lastly, one other minor detail is that on the ticket, my silver s2000 was documented as being a 2008 year model, but my insurance card clearly shows that it is a 2002. Do all of these arguments add up to make a strong enough case in my favor that the officer was not using proper judgment in issuing a ticket? Thank you guys for any advice.

OH and if it helps, the car has a T1R 70MM exhaust which is quite loud, if that helps.

CLIFF NOTES
pulled over for aggressive acceleration
officer says i was speeding, i never admitted to speeding
officer puts completely wrong address on ticket, only used visual/pace as the detection method, and documented the vehicle as the wrong year of production
what are my chances

 

A judge will not let you off on technicalities you listed. Pacing is legal, it just means he drove his car at the speed you were traveling and noted the speed.

 

Our US traffic courts are all basically Kangaroo courts, judge doesnt give a shit if you were innocent or not, all he cares about is rakin in the cash so he gets his bonus check.

 

I did trial by jury and lost, (I think because they were pissed that they got summoned to a traffic ticket violation lol) but ended up talking to the judge about my s2000 and how he raced corvettes and helped start baer brakes and ended up not having to pay anything.

Good luck.. lol

 

How did you get a jury, they usually dont do that

 

You usually have the right to request trial by jury if you plead not guilty to any traffic charge.

OP, since he paced you, about your only hope would be to request the maintenance records of his patrol car to see when it was last checked/calibrated. Many states have laws on how often a car must be checked (radars as well) to make sure they are accurate.

If it had not been checked/calibrated within the timeframe required, you get off on a technicality. Don't hold your breath though.

 

Second gear in a stock geared AP1 goes up to 60, so if you rapped it out to 9k, you were going 60.

I've heard of people getting away because of misinformation on the ticket, but I'm not quite sure how to fight it. So, I wouldn't count on that after reading the other responses.

Good luck!

And being that you have no proof of how far back the officer was, or when he started pacing you, or anything really, it's your word against his. 9 times out of 10, the judge will side with the cop. Unless you can provide a convincing argument. Which, is hard to do if you're speeding.

 

In Houston Texas it's all really up to how the judge is feeling that day.

Yes you can have a trial if you plead not guilty. Can have your trial 2 ways by judge or by jury. If by judge you give your case to the judge and he or she decides verdict. However what I see when citizens asks for a trial by judge they expect us not to show up and their case is dismissed. More often then not when people see that we do abide by our supeonas they quickly reset their case to a trial by jury a new date and time and another chance for us to miss out and there case be dismissed. However that is the last straw an individual can no longer reset there case on their own terms after that and they must go to trial at that time.

No the wrong address on the ticket will not get it dismissed the only reason it is on there is if you don't take care of the ticket we know where to send the letter that says you have an outstanding warrant.

No model / year / series mistakes will not get your ticket dismissed espicially in something like our cars can easily be explained away to the judge. Well your honor the vehicle is a 2005 s2000 and i thought it was a 2000 s2000 see what I mean.

Pacing is perfecting fine if your going the sped limit and someone is going faster that my sir is called speeding then we pace and ticket.

My suggestion just do the defensive driving... Not only will your ticket be dismissed but then after it all blows over you can call your insurance and have a deduction.

 

Check your DMV web-site. In NYC, incorrect documentation is grounds for dismissal. I had a ticket dismissed because the 'class' of vehicle was incorrectly checked off by the officer.

Wrong address, especially if your license and registration show another address, and and wrong MY would be grounds for dismissal, in my opinion.

Do you have to appear, or can you mail it in? If you have to mail it in, send it with not guilty plea and provide documentation.

 

Mat KS is right here, the courts only concern is to make the money from your citation; therefore, the judge can and will over look many mistakes on the citation if his little spincter boy cops say you did it.