USMC-Deano
Baby Eagle FTW
Feels like a lot longer than that, but 4 years since my last ticket. Anyway, here goes.
I was driving my kid to the doctor this morning, and I was heading through a school zone that I go through a couple times a week while it is in effect (St. Joseph's Academy on Broussard in BR). When I was heading into the school zone, I looked down at my speedometer to make sure I was going about 20mph(speed limit during non-school zone hours is 35), and I was, maybe a fuzz over. I always do this because I usually have some jackoff behind me tailgating the crap out of me because they just HAVE to go, even though it's a school zone and the limit is 20. Right when I'm about to the main entrance of the school, I see a cop walking into the middle of the street flagging me to turn right, as if it's a detour or something, so I head on down that street so I can get my kid to her appt. Next thing I know, my wife is telling me the cop is still waving me down telling me to come back, so I back up slowly until I'm parked between two cars. Roll down my window, cop asks for license/reg, so I inform him I'm packing concealed, hand him my license, reg, insurance, and CHP. He hands me back the insurance and CHP after looking them over briefly, and he walks away to his car, which is parked in front of my car, and looks like he's going over stuff. This whole time, mind you, I'm thinking this is some kind of random registration/license check, because I have not been told ANYTHING except to show him my license/reg/ins. After a few minutes of my wife and I talking, me telling her to call the Dr. to let them know we might be late, I look at the cop and he's writing me a ticket, for what reason, I still have no idea. After he comes back to my window, he hands me back my license and reg, then asks me if I knew I was in a school zone, I replied to the affirmative, then he has me sign a ticket, which, again, I still have no idea what is for. I look at the ticket and see what LOOKS like 30mph in a 20 school zone, but the 3 is basically nonexistent, and it actually shows up as 0mph in a 20mph zone. The last thing he says is that I need to call "this" number, while pointing to it, to find out how much the fine is. So, seriously, WTF? I wasn't even CLOSE to 30mph, and I know my speedo isn't off that much. It's actually fast at speeds over about 50 by 2-3mph, depending on speed. When it reads 70, I'm doing about 67-68, according to GPS, and speeds below 40-45 are pretty much dead on, maybe 1mph fast. My speedometer never read faster than about 23-24 when I was in the school zone, however, this will be impossible to prove in court without video evidence, which I do not roll around with, because I'm not the kind of person who expects to be ticketed for something I did NOT do.
So, what are my chances of fighting this successfully in court? Being a school zone, I'm worried the judge might be a bit more strict, and again, I can't prove what speed I was going just by saying I wasn't doing it. I KNOW I wasn't, as does my wife, but that means nothing in this case. Also, what would court costs look like? I plan to fight it, even if court costs would be more than the ticket just based on principle that I got a ticket for a straight up ******** reason, was never informed WHY I was stopped, and the fact that the cop was EXTREMELY unprofessional in his actions. My wife doesn't even want to hear me talking about becoming a federal LEO right now because of this crap.
Just FYI, I'm not one to fight tickets, never have before, because every time I have gotten one in the past, it has been legit. I have no trouble admitting when I'm doing something wrong, and if the ticket was written for a few mph over the limit, I wouldn't even bother fighting it. But because it's a flat out lie, I will be going to court for it. Again, if I get pulled over on I-12 for doing 80 in a 70, I won't bother fighting it, because odds are, that's about how fast I was going at the time.
I was driving my kid to the doctor this morning, and I was heading through a school zone that I go through a couple times a week while it is in effect (St. Joseph's Academy on Broussard in BR). When I was heading into the school zone, I looked down at my speedometer to make sure I was going about 20mph(speed limit during non-school zone hours is 35), and I was, maybe a fuzz over. I always do this because I usually have some jackoff behind me tailgating the crap out of me because they just HAVE to go, even though it's a school zone and the limit is 20. Right when I'm about to the main entrance of the school, I see a cop walking into the middle of the street flagging me to turn right, as if it's a detour or something, so I head on down that street so I can get my kid to her appt. Next thing I know, my wife is telling me the cop is still waving me down telling me to come back, so I back up slowly until I'm parked between two cars. Roll down my window, cop asks for license/reg, so I inform him I'm packing concealed, hand him my license, reg, insurance, and CHP. He hands me back the insurance and CHP after looking them over briefly, and he walks away to his car, which is parked in front of my car, and looks like he's going over stuff. This whole time, mind you, I'm thinking this is some kind of random registration/license check, because I have not been told ANYTHING except to show him my license/reg/ins. After a few minutes of my wife and I talking, me telling her to call the Dr. to let them know we might be late, I look at the cop and he's writing me a ticket, for what reason, I still have no idea. After he comes back to my window, he hands me back my license and reg, then asks me if I knew I was in a school zone, I replied to the affirmative, then he has me sign a ticket, which, again, I still have no idea what is for. I look at the ticket and see what LOOKS like 30mph in a 20 school zone, but the 3 is basically nonexistent, and it actually shows up as 0mph in a 20mph zone. The last thing he says is that I need to call "this" number, while pointing to it, to find out how much the fine is. So, seriously, WTF? I wasn't even CLOSE to 30mph, and I know my speedo isn't off that much. It's actually fast at speeds over about 50 by 2-3mph, depending on speed. When it reads 70, I'm doing about 67-68, according to GPS, and speeds below 40-45 are pretty much dead on, maybe 1mph fast. My speedometer never read faster than about 23-24 when I was in the school zone, however, this will be impossible to prove in court without video evidence, which I do not roll around with, because I'm not the kind of person who expects to be ticketed for something I did NOT do.
So, what are my chances of fighting this successfully in court? Being a school zone, I'm worried the judge might be a bit more strict, and again, I can't prove what speed I was going just by saying I wasn't doing it. I KNOW I wasn't, as does my wife, but that means nothing in this case. Also, what would court costs look like? I plan to fight it, even if court costs would be more than the ticket just based on principle that I got a ticket for a straight up ******** reason, was never informed WHY I was stopped, and the fact that the cop was EXTREMELY unprofessional in his actions. My wife doesn't even want to hear me talking about becoming a federal LEO right now because of this crap.
Just FYI, I'm not one to fight tickets, never have before, because every time I have gotten one in the past, it has been legit. I have no trouble admitting when I'm doing something wrong, and if the ticket was written for a few mph over the limit, I wouldn't even bother fighting it. But because it's a flat out lie, I will be going to court for it. Again, if I get pulled over on I-12 for doing 80 in a 70, I won't bother fighting it, because odds are, that's about how fast I was going at the time.
) ($175+$50 driving school)
