Oppo I seriously need help!

"EuroJosh" (eurojosh) 06/14/2014 at 19:45 • Filed to: None

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Short story, a friend and I were on a drive today to place we like to walk. On the way back a man standing in the middle of the road got a picture of my car and license plate. He reported us and the police showed up later and issued us a ticket for "racing with vehicles in excess of 80 mph". This was a very tight, windy, hilly and in general bad road. In all honesty, we were doing nothing near that, which let alone in our cars, would be pretty much impossible. We believe he thought we were racing because my buddy is straight piped and we past the house a couple times.

My question is to you, now that we got the ticket, we want to go to court with it, do you guys think we'll plead guilty? The only thing they have is somebody that was there with them and a picture of my car stopped in the road? This is really important because if I get this ticket, I may lose my license, and for nothing! Help!

michael bleggi > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 19:48

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i feel like this is ridiculous, there is no proof at all you were doing anything bad... are you in the US??

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 19:50

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If you're in America, you're innocent.

If you're elsewhere, fight it.

Vince-The Roadside Mechanic > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 19:50

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Plead innocent. Why?

1 explain the limitations of your vehicles and that they are loud and not fast.

2 did this guy clock you on a radar gun? no

3 Does he have any evidence? if not maybe he is lying

4 this guy is a dick prove him wrong and fight the ticket.

Tom McParland > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 19:50

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I'm no traffic lawyer but the problem here is the police have no proof that you were indeed breaking the law. There is no video, no radar, just the testimony of a witness who may or may not have been accurate in his description. Sounds to me like you could fight this. Go to court, plead not guilty but when you do so wear something nice look like an upstanding young man...not a hooligan. Explain that your buddies car is load and does sound "Faster" than the speeds would suggest. Apologize for causing whatever disturbance and state that you will make an effort to drive safely.

PheeNoIVI > Vince-The Roadside Mechanic 06/14/2014 at 19:51

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Exactly^^ don't back down. That's BS

EuroJosh > michael bleggi 06/14/2014 at 19:52

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Yes this happened it Pennsylvania. There were two guys. We asked the cops several times how this is possible with what they have, and he would either dodge the question and say that the judge will handle it or say that the person reported us "has a witness" but that witness's testament means just as little as us telling the cop we didn't

EuroJosh > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 06/14/2014 at 19:54

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We're in America, however the cop seemed so sure that if we went to court we'd be guilty anyway. But I think that may have been because we were so persistent to ask how this was possible

themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 19:55

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Demand proof. Unless they pull out video of you guys racing, it means nothing. I've had friends pulled over because someone said they were doing something wrong and all the cop did was let them know "Look, someone called in saying you were speeding a lot. I didn't see it, but keep your speed down when you pass little old ladies in buicks, okay?" so maybe the cop is just hoping you'll admit guilt or something.

EuroJosh > Tom McParland 06/14/2014 at 19:55

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Sounds like a good plan, thank you!

EuroJosh > Vince-The Roadside Mechanic 06/14/2014 at 19:56

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Seems to be the right thing to do!

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 19:56

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He's full of shit. He has no proof. You'll be fine to go to court and plead innocence.

EuroJosh > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 06/14/2014 at 20:00

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I think he might just be hoping that we dont go fight it.

sdwarf36 > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:01

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The cop wrote the ticket to calmdown the old man. No way in hell will it stand up in court. The old man won't show up for the hearing-neither will the cop. No radar-no cop witnessing-all you are going to be out is a days work to go to court + get it thrown out. (if it even makes it that far.) I'm shocked the cop actually put a number to the speed. Plea not guilty + I'll bet 100 Dogecoins it gets dropped before it makes it to court.

webmonkees > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:04

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When was the last time Concerned Citizen was calibrated for accurate speed measurement?

How is Racing distinctive from Speeding*? How are they inferring a Racing intent?

Are these witnesses off-duty officers?

How is the photograph of your car proof of a crime?

*you may have been Speeding, but generally that evaluation is done by a LEO.

Make it as inconvenient as you can afford. This is unsubstantiated and it should have been a warning which doesn't have to go under legal scrutiny.

Your local laws may vary draconian. If they've had problems with racers in that area there may be some nasty structural weakening of rights.

wabbalosthiskey > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:10

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I live in an old neighborhood with a 25mph "main road" where there are a handful of old people who have lived here since the 60s and hate the world. One in particular is so convinced it's "turned into a racetrack" she petitioned the city so many times for a meeting they finally had to give in and host one. One of the other geriatrics shows up with some sort of ebay mini-radar gun and proposes he give them out to all the neighbors who can record the license plates and speeds of anyone they think is going to too fast and report them. The police present immediately squashed that and made it quite clear that (besides it turning into harassment, etc) anything along those lines would be completely useless and unenforceable as there would be nothing witnessed, recorded etc by law enforcement, and the whole idea became a joke.

Now I've gone into court for similar things where I was completely and obviously in the right, with all the right answers, and been shut down by technicalities or jargon that were completely irrelevant but wasn't ready for... Nor do I care to become an expert. So now I just have someone handle these things for me. If I were you I'd ask around and find a traffic lawyer (they are cheap), and let him squash it for a couple hundred bucks so you don't end up with some sort of violation that involves the term "racing."

michael bleggi > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:12

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where in PA if you don't mid me asking... i am too. You could honestly get a solid case together against them if you wanted to turn the tables

McChiken116 - Patrick H. > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:12

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Fun thing about Witnesses in cases like this, Humans are actually terrible at telling the speed of objects relative to them. They have nothing, and you should 100% fight it

Driving_Impaired > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:13

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that's exactly the case. it's bs you have to take time out of your day to fight this but it will get thrown out in a second. most traffic citations bank on the fact that people won't fight. it's always about the $$$ anyway.

EuroJosh > michael bleggi 06/14/2014 at 20:15

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Chester county

Manuél Ferrari > themanwithsauce - has as many vehicles as job titles 06/14/2014 at 20:19

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Yeah this sounds crazy to me.

If something like this held up in court then people could make false claims about those they don't like to get them in trouble.

Unless there is a video of two cars clearly racing each other the "witness" should mean nothing.

michael bleggi > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 20:30

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I'm in coatesville, parkesburg, and kennet square a lot. that's funny

EuroJosh > michael bleggi 06/14/2014 at 20:33

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Pretty much we're going to request the report and if theres nothing on there besides that picture, we have it good.

HiredHand > EuroJosh 06/14/2014 at 22:12

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As others say, unless he has actual evidence showing the speed you were going or reckless behavior, there's not really anything anyone can do about it, it's kind of the nice thing about that whole "innocent until proven guilty thing".

However, I would be interested in what evidence he does have since police are not known to write tickets like that for fun. Or maybe he just didn't like you, either way fight it.

EuroJosh > HiredHand 06/15/2014 at 09:18

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It turns out they can only write the ticket if the witness agrees to go to court, so that's why we got it.

HiredHand > EuroJosh 06/15/2014 at 12:32

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So if he does go to court it'll be a "yes they did" vs. "no we didn't". I'd say your odds are 50-50 at worst.