Today's battle in court

[pyroman1]

Hello all!

My wife had her day in court today, and I thought I would share the results.

To start off with, I had prepared various avenues of defense. I did not want to go into court relying on one method solely. We were prepared to question jurisdiction, ask about the flag, question the officer's competency, establish that there IS a quota, dispute the validity of the speed limit, etc.

My wife became terrified the moment the officer showed up in court. She said she couldn't go through all of what I had prepared and to pick out the one thing I thought would work best. I decided to use the traffic engineering survey done for the section of road for which the alleged infraction took place.

I went online and printed aerial satellite images of the aforementioned section of road. The traffic engineering survey was provided to me by my state's (FL) DOT. It indicated that the speed limit changes from 55MPH to 45MPH 870' east of a particular road. The officer testified that he was more than 4' east of said road. He also testified that his laser speed detection device indicated that my wife was 866' east of his location. This means that my wife was in a 55MPH zone, according to the officer's testimony of locations and the establishment of the speed limits by the DOT.

My wife was ticketed with going 64MPH in a 45MPH zone. According to the above information the officer was wrong about the speed limit.

When we provided the speed survey, the hearing officer (a woman, first time for us) said this was the second time in a week someone came in with one. She asked if we were getting these off the internet. The hearing officer started grilling the police officer. The power had suddenly shifted from him to us. No longer did we feel the fear that one normally feels when appearing in court as a defendant.

After asking the officer several questions, with him further burying himself, the hearing officer said she will take the issue under advisement and we will be mailed the result of the hearing.

I consider this to likely be a win; however, I would like to know how many others have been told they will be notified by mail and what was the end result?

I will update this post when I finally do find the final disposition.

[Livefire]

Since they werent challenged jurisdictionally, they could still rule against her. 64 is still over the 55 posted limit. I bet they are gonna limit access to traffic survey data in the future! LOL Good Job!!! Hopefully your wife will find grace in the magistrates eyes and will rule in her favor!

[weishaupt1776]

Pyroman, chalk another one up for Florida, my man.
Thanks for posting
excellent Due Diligence
You shoulda called me, I could've been a witness there, bro

[charlesa6]

Originally Posted by pyroman1

After asking the officer several questions, with him further burying himself, the hearing officer said she will take the issue under advisement and we will be mailed the result of the hearing.

Good job!

I consider this to likely be a win; however, I would like to know how many others have been told they will be notified by mail and what was the end result?

I concur! How long it take to get the notification.

[Shoonra]

Good job. You obviously did your homework. More important, you stuck with the merits of the case, not the craziness I've seen recommended elsewhere on this website.

Judging from what you said, your wife was doing 64 mph, but you showed it was only 9 miles not 19 miles above the speed limit for that stretch; so if she has a penalty for speeding it will be less than otherwise.

[weishaupt1776]

Originally Posted by Shoonra

Good job. You obviously did your homework. More important, you stuck with the merits of the case,

Merits are good, when your jurisdictional challenges aren't developed or impossible

[J.W.]

Challenging jurisdiction by appearing specially can be an issue but in is certainly not "the" issue. Verified complaint, lack of prosecution, giving the judge the smack-down for attempting to prosecute from the bench and that sort of thing is much more reliable however, as a standard for each and every traffic case I have had, I have always made a special appearance.

[Livefire]

Also one should follow the money trail. In Michigan, 45 cents out of each "paid" citation goes directly to the judicial retirement fund. There were 1.9 million citations passed out in FY1998. Do the math! Tumey v Ohio, 273 US 510 (1927), is a killer cite to use on recusing the judge.

"It is finally argued that the evidence shows clearly that the defendant was guilty and that he was only fined $100 which was the minimum amount, and therefore that he cannot complain of a lack of due process, either in his conviction or in the amount of the judgment. The plea was not guilty and he was convicted. No matter what the evidence was against him, he had the right to have an impartial judge. He seasonably raised the objection, and was entitled to halt the trial because of the disqualification of the judge, which existed both because of his direct pecuniary interest in the outcome, and because of his official motive to convict and to graduate the fine to help the financial needs of the village. There were thus presented at the outset both features of the disqualification.

The judgment of the Supreme Court of Ohio must be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion."

[pyroman1]

Originally Posted by charlesa6

Good job!


I concur! How long it take to get the notification.

We asked how long it would take and were only told that the clerk will notify us by mail. No definitive time frame was given.

Originally Posted by Shoonra

Judging from what you said, your wife was doing 64 mph, but you showed it was only 9 miles not 19 miles above the speed limit for that stretch; so if she has a penalty for speeding it will be less than otherwise.

It is my understanding, though I may be wrong, that this would constitute a mistake on the citation. My wife never said she was going 64MPH, she only argued that the speed limit is not 45MPH. I think this would be like charging me with grand larceny, but I only stole a pack of gum. Even if they tried to issue a new citation, we could ask for a court date and by the time we get in the statute of limitations on it would have passed for Florida.

Others thoughts?

[Livefire]

Im thinking that you and a few others have exposed a weakness in their armor and the state is sweeping your cases under the rug. I have heard anecdotal stories about courts quietly dismissing them to prevent the people discovering the scam.

Perhaps filing an abatement into the record would be appropriate if you dont hear from them in a reasonable amount of time.