Slightly off subject, but a good story...

SO i'm cruisin home from my buddy's place in maine, going to boston. (bout a 3 hr drive) so it's a sunday, there's not much traffic, i'm crusin b/t 65-100. I'm pretty good at picking cops out, i have a radar detector, and i slow down for every turn and hill (only speeding in the straightaways-- cops don't park there, it's too obvious).

This truck is following me pretty good-- every lane change i make he makes, and he follows me for all of my speed adjustments. I assumed that he was just a guy that realized i had a trans am, that was a much better looking target than a truck to pull over. "OK, that's fine with me guy, have fun."

little did i know....

So this goes on for at least an hour. Then i get a KA hit on my radar detector. Tap my brakes (to alert others behind me, namely, my buddy the truck...) and slow to 65. Unmarked crusier goes by on the other side of the road. Nother 5-10 mins go by, another KA hit.... marked trooper goes by on the other side of the road. A minute later, a marked trooper passes me. (truck is behind me) Then i go past this pimped out trooper f-150 parked in the median. (didn't mean to used pimped out and ford in the same sentence, by pimped out i mean painted cruiser colours, light bar, speakers...etc)

All these cops are making me a little weary... i'm now doing 60 in the 65 zone.

I loose sight of my buddy the truck as i start to pay more attention to these troopers and their shananagans. The tooper truck pulls on to the road behind me, i am now in the sloow lane. It passes me at like 80, catching up to that other marked cruiser that went by. So another min goes by, now the trooper truck is sitting on the right side of the road. I pass it. it pulls out behind me and speeds up (i'm in the passing lane, still doing 60.) I change lanes, he gets rite up on my *** and flashety flash flash the lights go on.

Meanwhile, i'm thinking wtf is this, i'm doing 60 in a 65.

I pull over, he sounds over the loud horn to pull up to the other cruiser (which is now pulled over 100 yrds infront of me. so the other cruiser backs up, i pull up, the truck pulls up, that unmarked cruiser comes in and pulls over, blue lights galore. I turn the car off, keys on the dash, hands on the steeringwheel. "What seems to be the problem officer?"

Please step out of the car, sir...


Make a long story short, apparently that darn truck that was following me was an off duty trooper. Called it in, and had 'em bag me for "exceeding the speed limit by more than 30 mph." that's criminal speeding, you get arrested for it. With my good looks and my charm, i managed to get a ticket for 94 in a 65 (for those of you math impared, that's 29 over the limit). The troopers never clocked me over the limit. Jacka$$.

So now i got to fight this amazing piece of work that the maine troopers worked up. Any suggestions on best defense? (hell, i'll make a poll out of this! I'm somewhere between 1) the calibration on the speedometer for this truck was not up-to-date 2) the officer never actually saw me driving the car (he was always behind me, never got even or passed) 3) officer had a gripe against me for a lane technicality (i didn't let him in when he tried to pass on the right) 4) all of the above

thanks guys...

 

Nail those suckers......

 

ummmmmmm that shouldnt hold up

they dont have you on radar.............................

 

You should be able to get that thrown out of court easy.

 

What they said ^

 

dont forget... the judge will always side with the officer in a " he said/ she said " predicament... meaning if its just your word against his... then you lose.. you have to have #1 evidence... #2 witness of non-relation, or #3.. something so remotely ridiculous that it makes the judge laugh..

the cop will more than likely say he was guaging you with his car.. if so.. you lose cause the officer is always right...

its going to be tough to get this one thrown out.. because of the 4 other cops involved.. and i guarentee you if you fight it.. you're going to have all 4 against you.. 4 cops.. Vs. 1 person.. you're gonna loose no matter what you say.. thats just the way it works.

plus.. they are going to bring up the fact that they "only " gave you a ticket for 29 and not 30 over.. that alone will have the judge make them think you were flying... either way.. the bottom line is that you were not doing the limit at some point.. weither it be 5mph or 10.. if you admit to breaking the limit... you lose..

good luck

(ive done the exact same thing in my typhoon.. i lost bad.)

 

Actually, the guy in the truck was pacing him. This holds up in court. The fact remains that he was off duty and I assume not in a police vehicle. If the other cops didn't get you clocked speeding with radar(or pacing) then you should be good to go. I think the speedo calibration thing is your best bet, but throw everything at them you can think of.

 

That is bull****. Obviously the off duty police officer had to go the same speed as you, where is his ticket? That cannot be legal. If you get a ticket, so should he.

 

dood what are you new??? you live in cali.. you know as well as i do cops dont give other cops tickets... besides which.. the "off duty" crap never works... their oath... is a cop is technically on duty 24 hours a day.. if there is a law being broken.. an off duty cop has all the right to do what is necessary to assist and aid in any way to stop or take care of the law being broken

(my older brother is a CHP officer)

i just asked him about this and he just read your story... you're gonna lose... all you can do is hope the judge will drop the amount of the ticket... the off duty officer can say whatever he wants and say he was helping the on duty officers. the thing you have to realize is cops take care of each other... hell im not a cop.. but the fact my brother now is helps me out ALOT!! i get to have one of those license plate frames with the # on it that says im realated to a cop.

do what you must... but right now from my stand point.. you have no real reason why you were exceeding the speed.. even if he is off duty.. he still has power.. you exceeded the limit they saw you.. the judge will ask you if you ever went over the 65mph barrier.. if you lie their gonna know you lied.. then you're screwed.. if you admit to going over the limit... you went over it.. end of story... you dont have a case...

the speedometer is not 29mph off.. even if it was 10mph off.. thats still bad.... you dont have a case..

 

I voted for all, but the first two are much better than the third one. That one is just going to make you look like you are desperate and grabbing at straws...

Just remember that you are innocent until proven guilty and that lots of lawyers will do free reviews about your case and maybe give you some pointers.

 

If you feel the cop in the truck was egging you on (It sound like it was for a while), than isn't that entrapment?

What gives that *rick the right to force his views of morality on anybody he runs into on the road when he’s off duty. *uck that !!!

He obviously profiled you as a young man, in a fast car. …so I’m going to show you!!!

oh – oh – yea - sure he did for the safety of you, and others... My asssssssss ... It sounds like he did it to play ***! And that all important ‘hey ada boy’ from his superiors , and to generate revenue.

Fight it to win, fight it to scare that *ricks record.


Ron

 

there isn't anything tech about this thread and you all know this is a tech only site. thanks