Can't decide what to do, traffic stop that pissed me off.

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  • Jimmy Dean

    Well-Known Member
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    Mar 5, 2008
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    So, saturday night I go to Monroe with a buddy of mine to go to a western club.

    Anyways, we get there around 9pm, stay till close at 2am. I have over the entire time 5 beers, I had my last one at 1230.

    On the way back through Monroe I am taking a right turn off of Mill street onto Hwy 80, and in the middle of a the turn is a truck swallowing pothole, anyways, when I hit the pothole, it jerks the wheel out of the one hand I have on the wheel. (the other hand was down shifting from 3rd to 2nd).

    About a mile and a half down the road, the cop behind me lights me up. Anyways, he asks me to step out, asks if I had been drinking, I replied honestly, did as requested.

    He runs plates, license, and the SN on the pistol (which he has in his truck at this point). Comes back, calls up 3 other units......and starts with the sobriety tests. He says he is going to give me 3 tests.

    First one is the following the pen thing.
    Second one is standing on a foot for 30 seconds.

    After the second one, and me not having a problem with any of them, he tells me to go sit down in my truck and call a friend to come pick me up and a friend to ride with him to drive my truck back home as well.


    That is the friggin problem I have. First, that means calling people up at 3 in the morning to drive a 45 minutes out to Monroe from Ruston to come get me, finding two sober people at 3am....not easy when everyone you know up here is in college.

    I have a problem with the fact that I was very obviously sober, enough so that he never bothered with having me walk a straight line or blowing in a breathalyzer. He wrote me a ticket for improper lane usage. I have a problem with the fact that even though I was more than legally allowed to drive away, I was not allowed to, he blocked in my truck and took away my keys when I was sober and in no way legally forbidden from driving my own damn self back to Ruston.

    As far as I am concerned, I was subjected to, from the point after the sobriety tests (I have no problem with him administering those, or running any of the numbers or anything, that is his job and in his place I would have done the same after watching a truck crossing over the bridge where all the bars are and crossing the centerline, even if the truck did not do anything at all wrong after that up until the flashing lights came on) but after the tests, having been proven sober and under the limit, that I was detained and unable to leave.

    It took me about 30 minutes to get two people to head out that way, and then told the officers that it would be about another 45 till they showed up, they ended up putting me and my buddy in the back of a car and driving us to the station, while one of the officers drove my truck to the station, they locked the keys up in the front office and locked my pistol in my truck (dont have any problems with that, of course, they tried to escort me into the building and I refused and told them that I was going to watch to make sure that my pistol ended up locked in my truck which they did not seem to have a problem with)


    So, if you felt like reading through all of this, any thoughts on what I should do? My current line of thought right now is to call the DA up tomorrow for W. Monroe and discuss the legality of me being detained for no damn good reason after the sobriety tests. I would be willing to drop the entire issue if I can get the ticket dropped, seeing as how even that was caused by the **** poor road conditions in W. Monroe (and almost everywhere else in the state)
     

    Witness

    >Glock
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    Jun 4, 2008
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    baton rouge
    :doh:

    dude, you got LUCKY. quit your bitchin. i would have walked my happy ass from ruston to monroe if it meant getting away with DUI. i've been down that road, trust me when i say you have no idea how lucky you got.

    do you have any idea how many drinks it takes to get you to .08BAC? you probably dont.

    count your lucky stars.

    the end.

    p.s you talked to the cops, epic FAIL
     

    LAYNFRM

    in the fire
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    Sep 13, 2006
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    central/pride
    in before the majority of the...

    shitstorm-flyer.jpg
     

    Jimmy Dean

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    A little intoxicated? hardly, I do know what it takes to get to .08, and not alot, I also know how fast alcohol is processed, I would have blown around a .04bac, blood test would have shown slightly higher, in the area of .045.

    the cop simply had no ability to give a DWI or a DUI, kinda hard to when not over the or when one passes all sobriety tests and is visibly sober while under the limit.

    Plus, you don't know the WMPD, they have been handing out DUIs and DWIs like candy the last couple of months, they are not and have not been giving breaks. Simply put, I was sober, he saw that and was unable to ticket.


    on edit, I blew a .027 at 3:55 when my roomate showed up to pick me up, which is in line with the fact that I would have blown a .04 just over an hour earlier
     

    Witness

    >Glock
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    Jun 4, 2008
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    baton rouge
    Maybe you were a lil intoxicated, and he did you a favor by letting your friends come pick you up instead of giving you a dwi.... just a thought

    if the cop would have let him go and he wrapped his truck around a tree down the road i'm sure mommy and daddy would be suing the department for letting him drive after the stop, there must be a record of him running all those numbers. right?

    man, i'm tellin you, you DO NOT want to get a DUI. if i couldnt have found a friend i would have called a cab and damn tow truck if i had to. hell, i'd gladly share a bunk with bubba, the local child rapist, for a night and catch a ride back to my truck in the morning.
     

    Jimmy Dean

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    Witness, if I would have been in any condition what so ever to not feel safe driving, I would not have, the fact is, is that I was fine. The cop found that out. it being WMPD, if I was not, I would have gotten the ticket for it.
     

    Witness

    >Glock
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    Jun 4, 2008
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    baton rouge
    A little intoxicated? hardly, I do know what it takes to get to .08, and not alot, I also know how fast alcohol is processed, I would have blown around a .04bac, blood test would have shown slightly higher, in the area of .045.

    WRONG! unless you own a BAC test then you have no idea. i bought one btw, awesome party favor.

    yeah yeah yeah there might be general rule of thumb but unless you blow, you dont have a ****ing clue. EVERYBODY is unique when it comes to holding your booze.
     

    Jimmy Dean

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    if the cop would have let him go and he wrapped his truck around a tree down the road i'm sure mommy and daddy would be suing the department for letting him drive after the stop, there must be a record of him running all those numbers. right?

    man, i'm tellin you, you DO NOT want to get a DUI. if i couldnt have found a friend i would have called a cab and damn tow truck if i had to. hell, i'd gladly share a bunk with bubba, the local child rapist, for a night and catch a ride back to my truck in the morning.

    BTW witness, I do take some offense at your first line here. Mommy and Daddy would have had no stake in anything. Everything I own, or have done since I graduated high school has been of my own accord. Don't think that because I am not 40 years old yet, or because I am in college, that I get everything from mommy and daddy.
     

    Jimmy Dean

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    WRONG! unless you own a BAC test then you have no idea. i bought one btw, awesome party favor.

    yeah yeah yeah there might be general rule of thumb but unless you blow, you dont have a ****ing clue. EVERYBODY is unique when it comes to holding your booze.

    Witness, guess what, I do own one. It is not as expensive or as nearly accurate as what the PDs have, or as accurate as an actual blood test, but it works well enough to make sure that noone leaves my house if they are remotely close to the limit. Little grey one, costs about 65 bucks,
     

    Doc Holliday

    I'm your huckleberry...
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    May 18, 2008
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    Watson, LA
    apparently, the officer saw something during the stop/field sobriety that led him to believe that it was not safe for you to drive. it happens frequently. if he had allowed you to drive off and you had gotten into a crash, his name would be the 1st one listed on the lawsuit. i always err on the side of caution. if you're thinking that he was being a prick for making you call people to come pick you & your truck up, you're sadly mistaken. i think that you should be thankful that, just for drill, he didn't arrest you, impound your vehicle, tag your weapon for safekeeping, and take you in for a breath test. even if you'd passed the test, you'd still have to pay a wrecker bill and possibly wait until normal business hours to retreive your weapon.

    the moral to this story is, if you've drank any alcohol, don't drive; and if you do, don't whine about a cop doing what he's being paid to do, protect the public.

    that's all...
     

    tunatuk

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    Jun 30, 2007
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    Ascension Parish
    You do realize you can be charged with DWI even if you are under .08, right? If it can be proved that you are impaired while driving due to the alcohol, you can be charged with it.

    I don't know if I believe that we are getting the whole story from you either. You've already proven yourself to be fairly irresponsible around alcohol (I seem to remember a couch being the victim in that case). I'm not saying you are lying, you just may not be giving us 100% truthful information.

    Either way, I love the victim mentality you have. It is always amusing that people try and use some other inconvenience to get out of something.

    By the way you said that "I'd be willing to drop the entire issue if I can get the ticket dropped" tells me that there is something more to it. I think you might be exaggerating some things, or blowing them way out of proportion.

    Just my 2cents.
     

    Jimmy Dean

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    You do realize you can be charged with DWI even if you are under .08, right? If it can be proved that you are impaired while driving due to the alcohol, you can be charged with it.

    I don't know if I believe that we are getting the whole story from you either. You've already proven yourself to be fairly irresponsible around alcohol (I seem to remember a couch being the victim in that case). I'm not saying you are lying, you just may not be giving us 100% truthful information.

    Either way, I love the victim mentality you have. It is always amusing that people try and use some other inconvenience to get out of something.

    By the way you said that "I'd be willing to drop the entire issue if I can get the ticket dropped" tells me that there is something more to it. I think you might be exaggerating some things, or blowing them way out of proportion.

    Just my 2cents.



    Tuna, referancing the issue from not too terribly long ago, 1) It was not me who shot a couch. 2) Did I leave anything out then? I have not left anything out now, left NOTHING out.

    Also, you do not get a DWI if your under the limit, it is a DUI. Don't know what all the legal differances are, but there are some as far as the severity of punishment. That is what the sobriety tests are for, if you fail the tests but pass a breathalyzer, you get a DUI. Or, you can pass the sobriety tests but fail the breath test and get a DWI.

    I stated that I had no problem being pulled over, and given a sobriety test, and would have had no problem with being asked to give a breath test, that is the way it works. But, upon passing both, there is no reason for me to continue to be held up from going about my business.

    As far as the lawsuit, would be pretty hard for any potential lawsuit to make muster, seeing as how the entire incident was recorded. Video of me passing the sobriety tests, and my complete actions through out the stop. Which show no indecation that I was in the least bit impaired other than my admmition to having a few drinks a few hours previous. Secondly, while I know this is not the case for many people, whose going to sue? If I wreck my truck because I am drunk driving, why would I sue the PD? I was the one who f'ed up. My parents? same mentality, it woulda been me who f'ed up, noone else.


    the dropping the whole issue thing, I think that the original ticket is BS in the first place because it was caused by some pretty shitty road conditions. Not too worried about the ticket, I mean, it is a 50 dollar ticket or so. I am aggrivated at being held up much longer than necassary.
     

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