Speeding Ticket in DC

This morning I got a speeding ticket...I was on a two lane road, with a
30mph speed limit (if you are familiar with the area,16th street towards
silver spring). I was coming up to a red light with a car and a cop in the
next lane over...the red turned green and I sped by both at 30mph (the
limit) - the cop comes behind me, with blue lights flashing, so I assume he
needs to pass...I go up to 35 so I can get ahead of the car in the left lane
and let him pass...he then turns on his sirens and pulls me over. so I was
going 35 in a 30 zone, but he wrote me down as going 40 - I guess he felt
liked rounding up, and of course I had no recourse to argue. Anyways, what
he said was "Why the hell did you pass me?" he talked about how stupid it
was to pass a sky cab or something like that - I tried to explain but he
shushed me and cited me for speeding, and gave me an extra $100 ticket for
california plates. Any way I can argue the speeding ticket?

"Zwanz of Never" > wrote in message
news:bGAKd.323$UB6.85@trnddc01...
> This morning I got a speeding ticket...I was on a two lane road, with a
> 30mph speed limit (if you are familiar with the area,16th street towards
> silver spring). I was coming up to a red light with a car and a cop in the
> next lane over...the red turned green and I sped by both at 30mph (the
> limit) - the cop comes behind me, with blue lights flashing, so I assume
> he needs to pass...I go up to 35 so I can get ahead of the car in the left
> lane and let him pass...he then turns on his sirens and pulls me over. so
> I was going 35 in a 30 zone, but he wrote me down as going 40 - I guess he
> felt liked rounding up, and of course I had no recourse to argue. Anyways,
> what he said was "Why the hell did you pass me?" he talked about how
> stupid it was to pass a sky cab or something like that - I tried to
> explain but he shushed me and cited me for speeding, and gave me an extra
> $100 ticket for california plates. Any way I can argue the speeding
> ticket?
>
>
>
>

Your word against his in court.

el Diablo wrote:

> "Zwanz of Never" > wrote in message
> news:bGAKd.323$UB6.85@trnddc01...
>
>>This morning I got a speeding ticket...I was on a two lane road, with a
>>30mph speed limit (if you are familiar with the area,16th street towards
>>silver spring). I was coming up to a red light with a car and a cop in the
>>next lane over...the red turned green and I sped by both at 30mph (the
>>limit) - the cop comes behind me, with blue lights flashing, so I assume
>>he needs to pass...I go up to 35 so I can get ahead of the car in the left
>>lane and let him pass...he then turns on his sirens and pulls me over. so
>>I was going 35 in a 30 zone, but he wrote me down as going 40 - I guess he
>>felt liked rounding up, and of course I had no recourse to argue. Anyways,
>>what he said was "Why the hell did you pass me?" he talked about how
>>stupid it was to pass a sky cab or something like that - I tried to
>>explain but he shushed me and cited me for speeding, and gave me an extra
>>$100 ticket for california plates. Any way I can argue the speeding
>>ticket?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> Your word against his in court.
>

That's not to say you shouldn't go, however.

I'm curious about the California plates thing... are you now living in
DC? If you are, you should get that fixed before your court date, as
the judge will ask about that.

nate

--
replace "fly" with "com" to reply.
http://home.comcast.net/~njnagel

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:21:27 GMT Zwanz of Never wrote:

> This morning I got a speeding ticket...I was on a two lane road, with a
> 30mph speed limit (if you are familiar with the area,16th street
> towards
> silver spring). I was coming up to a red light with a car and a cop in
> the
> next lane over...the red turned green and I sped by both at 30mph (the
> limit) - the cop comes behind me, with blue lights flashing, so I
> assume he
> needs to pass...I go up to 35 so I can get ahead of the car in the left
> lane
> and let him pass...he then turns on his sirens and pulls me over. so I
> was
> going 35 in a 30 zone, but he wrote me down as going 40 - I guess he
> felt
> liked rounding up, and of course I had no recourse to argue. Anyways,
> what
> he said was "Why the hell did you pass me?" he talked about how stupid
> it
> was to pass a sky cab or something like that - I tried to explain but
> he
> shushed me and cited me for speeding, and gave me an extra $100 ticket
> for
> california plates. Any way I can argue the speeding ticket?




Yep. Fight it.
There is no written law that says you have to stop because an officer is
stopped on the side writing a citation.
Also, DC has to accept your california plates as being kosher.
Force him into court and have him explain under exactly what laws you were
cited and why.
Most likely the judge will dismiss the charges.
As he has to mark the exact laws under which you were cited on the ticket,
get a copy of those laws and read them carefully.
He probably figured that because your plates are from california, you aren't
going to challenge his bogus efforts.

I lived in Colorado one winter with Ohio plates on my car.
I worked at one resort, living in one area where I passed throug a small
town.
Got to be a habit actually. Every night, a city cop would be waiting at the
ramp for me.
He'd follow me to the edge of town and turn around.
Was I doing anything illegal? Nope. It's just the fact I had out of state
plates.
Nothing but pure harassment.

Challenge the ticket. I would.

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 20:34:40 -0500 Nate Nagel wrote:

> el Diablo wrote:

>> "Zwanz of Never" > wrote in message
>> news:bGAKd.323$UB6.85@trnddc01...



>> Your word against his in court.


> That's not to say you shouldn't go, however.

> I'm curious about the California plates thing... are you now living in
> DC? If you are, you should get that fixed before your court date, as
> the judge will ask about that.

If the driver's license and plates match, that is not an issue.
As there are literally thousands of people who drive through DC from
neighboring states every day, the fact that plates are from another state,
doesn't matter legally.
What if it's a rental car?
What if my cousin from california is in town and I'm using his car because
mine's in the shop?
By granting me a driver's license, I can drive any non-commercial vehicle,
any where in the world.

Some cops have a bad day and they will pick on out of state vehicles because
they figure the ticket(s) won't be challenged.
This particular cop needs to have an attitude adjustment.

For reasons I don't want to explore, on Sat, 29 Jan 2005 00:21:27 GMT,
"Zwanz of Never" > wrote:

>This morning I got a speeding ticket...I was on a two lane road, with a
>30mph speed limit (if you are familiar with the area,16th street towards
>silver spring). I was coming up to a red light with a car and a cop in the
>next lane over...the red turned green and I sped by both at 30mph (the
>limit) - the cop comes behind me, with blue lights flashing, so I assume he
>needs to pass...I go up to 35 so I can get ahead of the car in the left lane
>and let him pass...he then turns on his sirens and pulls me over. so I was
>going 35 in a 30 zone, but he wrote me down as going 40 - I guess he felt
>liked rounding up, and of course I had no recourse to argue. Anyways, what
>he said was "Why the hell did you pass me?" he talked about how stupid it
>was to pass a sky cab or something like that - I tried to explain but he
>shushed me and cited me for speeding, and gave me an extra $100 ticket for
>california plates. Any way I can argue the speeding ticket?
>
>


Of course you can argue it. This doesn't mean you will win, of
course.

Kent
--
When cryptography is outlawed,
bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

"Kent Wills" > wrote
> Of course you can argue it. This doesn't mean you will win, of
> course.

Almost any argument will mitigate a ticket- *that's* the 'win'.
It's not worth paying a lawyer $500 an hour to appear in court for you, but
it's worth 5 hours of your time if you only make $20 an hour and you beat
the $100 extra for CA plates, for instance.
It's even worth showing up for two hours to wait and find out the cop isn't
going to show.
If you write a single letter to his superiors, much less copy in *their*
superiors, he'll think twice before he does it again.
****'em; fight back.

Chas

Richard,

I could be wrong but I bet that while filling out the ticket the cop
asked for the current address and it was not in Cal. If that's the case then
the ticket for improper tags and maybe license would be appropriate. Most
places give 30 days from the date of arrival for new residents to get new
tags et c.
Your Colo. story is a case in point. When you were working in Colo. you
were resident there and obligated to get a Colo. license and registration if
you lived there for 90 days.

Dave M.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 16:55:25 GMT, "David Martel"
> wrote:

>Richard,
>
> I could be wrong but I bet that while filling out the ticket the cop
>asked for the current address and it was not in Cal. If that's the case then
>the ticket for improper tags and maybe license would be appropriate. Most
>places give 30 days from the date of arrival for new residents to get new
>tags et c.

As any reasonable person would have been able to figure out that
something like that was the likely scenario.

> Your Colo. story is a case in point. When you were working in Colo. you
>were resident there and obligated to get a Colo. license and registration if
>you lived there for 90 days.
>
>Dave M.
>