DOH! speeding ticket, question about radar detection

[tiAn@usiw.net (Christian Els)]

Once when I was young and brazen I tried demanding a jury trial for a minor
traffic infraction.

I was hit with Contempt of Court charges to accompany my moving violation.

In the state of Missouri, at least, you are only guaranteed the right to a
jury trial in criminal proceedings.

Be careful, you can go broke real fast with a big mouth...


Christian Els


----- Original Message -----
From: <jester@westfailure.net>
To: "ATS - Patrick Bureau" <pbureau@attbi.com>
Cc: "_Scirocco Mailing List" <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Thursday, 14 February, 2002 09:36
Subject: Re: DOH! speeding ticket, question about radar detection


> On Thu, 14 Feb 2002, ATS - Patrick Bureau wrote:
>
> > since when a moving vehicule mounted with a radar detector system can
clock
> > an incoming car on the road? I was under the impression they had to be
> > immobile to ensure that the reading is correctly read on a speeding
> > vehicule.
> Nope,
>
> They now have speed sensors integrated into the radar, so that way it
> subtracts the police vehicles speed from the total readout.
>
> They are required to calibrate all this stuff on a regular basis, you
> could plead innocent and try to make him bring all the paperwork to prove
> that the radar was correctly calibrated, etc.
>
> If you plead innocent, get a trial date set & show up, you have the right
> to call witnesses, and, if the prosecution cannot produce witnesses
> against you (read the policamen & whomever is in charge of calibrating the
> radar guns) they have to dismiss charges. But more likely than not you'd
> just tick off the judge & get the book thrown at you. Especially if you
> didnt research what to do, as i'm sure TV lawyer antics would get you in
> trouble ;)
>
> Maybe if you insisted on a trial by jury, they would throw it out to avoid
> the expense and hassle, as you, I think, are guranteed trial by jury if
> you desire, but I could be way wrong on that, as im not a lawyer & that
> recollection comes from long ago when I sped on the streets more.
>
> FWIW, I've had 30+ moving violations (i told you i sped a lot when i was
> younger) and, until recently, never had a point on my license. I always
> figured the reduced insurance rates MORE than made up for the cost of a
> lawyer having my moving violation changed to a non-moving.
>
> to start a new thread: whats the worst speeding ticket(s) you ever got.
> me, i got 4 tickets for 1 incident. i was doing donuts in a BIG EMPTY
> suburban mall parking lot, burning a lot of rubber, and the police roughed
> me up a bit, told my friends not to watch, made me pick up the papers he
> spilled on his floor chasing me, and gave me 4 tickets at once. Careless
> and imprudent, failure to stop for a stop sign, failure to maintain a
> single lane, and 45 in a 15 MPH zone. All of this occured on private
> property, though the property wasnt mine. Being roughed up, having
> witnesses, and $600+ in lawyer/court fees got me off with a clean record.
>
> take care,
>
> Steve
>
>
>
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