If you’ve entered into a courtroom prior to today, you know that they are rather impressive and they leave no doubt in your mind who is in charge. Regardless of that fact you are still entitled to certain rights. Unfortunately your rights may be overlooked in court, in an effort to get you to plead guilty so that the court gets your money. Be aware of your rights as you are approaching the date of your trial. Make sure to remember the following rights and keep them in your mind as you enter into the courtroom.
*You are entitled to a speedy trial. *You may request and are entitled to a court trial. Usually the only ruling body is the Judge. You may have the option in some states to request a jury. You’ll probably have better luck with a Judge than a jury of your peers in most cases. *You are entitled to the use of an attorney. In traffic court you will usually have to pay for this service, you won’t get one for free unless your offense could be subject to jail time.*Do not attempt to subpoena the officer who was riding along in the police car when you were stopped. The only thing that would be of interest to you are documents listed in the public records in discovery sections here previously. *Any witnesses brought into court are subject to cross examination by you. Usually it would be the officer who wrote the ticket. That’s why if the officer does not show up, there’s no case against you and no conviction. *You have the right to remain silent. Don’t ever forget this as you go into the courtroom. You never have to testify against yourself and try not to take the stand for the defense. Later on in this article you’ll see how important these rights are to assist you in fighting your cause. Make a note of them and keep them handy so that you’ll be reminded of them during the course of the trial.
REQUEST PUBLIC RECORDS
This area is important for several reasons. First of all, look up the actual violation that you were charged with. Be aware of how it’s worded and any relevant laws that may pertain to that particular code. You might need to access the public records provisions to obtain necessary documentation to help you prepare your defense. You can either go to your local library or a local Law library. Try to look at the different case laws that relate to your particular violation and copy down any references that support your potential defense. Presume that you are going to prosecute your own case, and write down any laws that you would use. I shall take an example from the California Motor vehicle code to illustrate what the prosecution will need to prove in order to get a conviction against you. The traffic violation code that we shall use is CVC22350 Unsafe Speed. “No person shall drive a vehicle (you have to be identified as the driver and the witness for the prosecution needs to have observed you actually driving the vehicle) upon a highway.” (The prosecution has to establish where the violation occurred). “At a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent.” What do you consider reasonable or prudent? It’s merely someone’s opinion. “Having due regard for weather visibility, the traffic on and the surface and width of the highway.” These are the factors used to establish reasonable and prudent issues “and in no event at a speed which endangers safety of a person or property.” Are you guilty of endangering the person or of endangering someone’s property? Try to break down the codes into bits and pieces that you can manage and figure out all the points that the prosecution needs to prove against you. If he does not prove all these points, you have grounds for dismissal after they rest their case.
DISCOVER
One of the rights of the defendant as part of the trial is the discovery process. Some states try to limit this right in traffic cases. The reason is they want you to pay your fine and go home. Try to remember that it is your constitutional right for utilization of the discovery process. You are going to find a list of the items you need, how to write your request, and who to send it to under the Public Records Request. Talk to your local county clerks office and find out how to issue a discovery subpoena. Make sure that you indicate that any items on the discovery subpoena are necessary prior to the trial date. The items you might normally need for a radar speeding ticket are the following; repair records, manufacturers manual and specifications, a log of the calibrations, and a copy of the departments FCC license to operate a radar unit, a copy of the repair calibration, and accuracy of the tuning fork. The arrest record of the police officer for three months prior to the date of your offense. His log for the day of your citation. Both copies of your original citation. A speedometer calibration certificate, all the maintenance and the repair records and the service records for the patrol car that was used in stopping you for your violation. Please be aware that the prosecution can stop this request with a motion to protect. Don’t let that bother you because if this occurs just appear at your trial and make a motion to dismiss the charges. It might work, it might not. If it doesn’t work, ask what the prosecution is trying to hide by denying you the information that you need to build your case. Immediately after that, file for a motion for continuance to give you enough time to get your defense ready after the materials are delivered. If the Judge still denies you access to the information that you want, you have an excellent basis for a not guilty plea during the appeals process, and reversal of a guilty verdict. Now we’re going to tell you what to look for in this documentation, so that you can use it at your trial.
REVIEWING EVIDENCE
The repair records for the radar unit will give indication as to the dependability of the unit. If it has frequent repair records, you’ll find that it may have a chronic problem. If there are infrequent repairs it could mean that the unit has not been serviced properly and may not be accurate. The manufacturers manual and specifications will tell you at what frequency maintenance is suggested on the unit. This information should assist you with your cross examination. Check the units frequency against the FCC also. The radar calibration log shows what time and how often the unit was calibrated. Which means how often it was checked for accuracy. There are two court cases you can refer to; Wisconsin versus Hanson and Minnesota versus Gerdes. During those cases the Judge determined that calibration checking with a tuning fork should be performed within a reasonable time after the citation is issued. In two other cases; Connecticut versus Tomanelli, and New York versus Struck, it was ruled that a calibration by tuning fork should be performed immediately before and after a citation is issued. All four of these case have shown that tuning at the start and at the end of the shift is not acceptable, although this is the norm. The FCC license is granted for a specific frequency or a specific range of frequencies. Check the information in the manufacturers manual and specifications against the FCC’s license. This should prove whether the officer was operating the unit legally. Calibration by tuning fork information is necessary to show that the unit had been calibrated to what we call a “traceable standard.” Without the certificate of calibration, the tuning fork is immediately suspect as being accurate enough to calibrate the radar unit. The daily log record of the police officer may indicate that he prefers to ticket cars of a specific color, make, model, or year. If there is a pattern, there may be a particular location that he writes more of his tickets. It could be that location has bad engineering, problems with traffic control, or visibility of the signs are bad. That could contribute to the amount of citations that are issued. Basically it introduces doubt into the minds of the court. The daily log of the police officer will list all of the citations that were issued on the day that you received yours. Check for a listing of citations that are similar to yours such as, same speed, same location. That would tend to indicate that perhaps the radar unit was locked in and the same reading was used for more than one vehicle. The police officer’s radar training should show 24 hours of classroom instruction and that followed by 16 hours of supervised field training. Most of the time the officers are trained for a very brief period of time. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has endorsed and established the 24/16 hour criteria for training. The police officer’s copy of the citation, meaning both sides, can be informative because the officer usually writes down his own notes to refresh his memory and if you know what he is going to be remembering, you can bring up other factors that he may not. The calibration of the speedometer on the patrol car should show that it has been repaired properly and is accurate. This is extremely important, if the patrol car was moving when the radar unit was used. Maintenance records of the patrol car may possibly show any mechanical or electrical problems which could interfere with the proper operation of the radar unit.
GO BACK TO THE SCENE WHERE YOU GOT YOUR TICKET
Returning to the area where you got your ticket can have several purposes. You may remember some additional details that you forgot to write down on the day that the citation was issued, and will also give you a chance to look at the situation and the scene in a bit more detail. If you find that there are some factors that may sway the decision of the court at the scene, you’ll need to prepare documentation to prove them for the trial. Your best evidence to present at the trial about the scene would be a large diagram that documents everything that’s relevant. Try to include the following; All the roads, with the markings on the roads and their widths, and all traffic signals that includes signs or lights. The location of your vehicle and the officers vehicle at the time that you were pulled over. Also include the locations after you both stopped. Put down any structures in the area such as walls, buildings, fences, etc. Note any foliage, brush, shrubs, hedges, trees. Any other structures around the area such as billboards, advertising banners, street signs, anything that might distract. Put down any power line antennas, that sort of thing. It might be important for you to take some pictures from the drivers view point to illustrate any obstructing signage which may have caused you to miss seeing a speed sign.The size of your diagram should be the size that will be easily viewed by anyone in the courtroom. Keep it at a minimum of 8 x 10. Just bring these reference materials to court if they will have a direct bearing on your case. If what you have described on your diagram is basically what is described on your citation, it won’t be necessary to bring it in because it will only be helping the Prosecutor with his case. If it does show some kind of some serious contributing factor, don’t show these items until the trial when you introduce them as evidence for the defense.
CHECK OUT THE COURTROOM AHEAD OF TIME
If you’ve got time, spend a couple of hours in traffic court to get a general lay of the land. Usually the Judge will be same as for your case, but the Prosecutor may be different. Pay attention during your visit to the way the Judge addresses the defense, motions, or objections. You might even be lucky enough to see another citizen try to defend their own case, and see how he fares going down the paths of justice. Is he as prepared as you are in your case? And, if he made any mistakes, can you learn from them? If you’re lucky there will also be a defense attorney there and you may also be able to learn from his methods. Study the relationships between the assistant district attorney, who is the Prosecutor, and the officer who is testifying. Usually this will give you some kind of indication of how comfortable they are working together, and also the amount of detail that they require during a normal preceding. Remember 95% of all traffic violations are paid without question. This will give you some kind of expectation of what you can look forward to before you have your moment in court.Finally, if you find that the Judge is overruling any defense objections, you might want to file for a continuance immediately. It can only help your cause if you transfer to another court, if it appears that you are going to appear before a Judge that will not be beneficial to your case.
PLAN YOUR DEFENSE
Now that you’ve gone over all the evidence that you are going to review, you’ve looked at the scene for the second time and you’ve checked out all of the documentation that you need to support your case. It’s time to think of a defense strategy for your trial. Be aware that most traffic tickets are argued from two different areas; a false radar reading, or a mistaken identity of the vehicle. Your defense strategy should be comprised of several elements. They include some of the following, Lack of a prosecution witness. This is your best chance for a mistrial. If there’s no police officer, then there’s no witness, and you’re not guilty. It can’t get any easier than that. Prosecution doesn’t prove the case against you. You should be familiar with all of the specifications of the code that you are charged with violating. If the prosecuting attorney doesn’t prove each and every item in the section of code, you should file a motion of dismissal and it is likely that you will win. If there are technicalities, such as the officer was out of his jurisdictional area, he cited the wrong code, or the address is wrong on the ticket. They are worth trying but don’t expect them to get you a dismissal except for a jurisdictional issue. If you plan on using this as your sole form of defense, you may be caught unaware when the Judge over rules on your motion to dismiss, simply because of a simple error.The next item could be an error on the ticket, a factual error on the ticket, whereby you were not the driver, or you were not driving at an unsafe speed, the calibration of the unit was inaccurate, or, it was not your vehicle that was targeted by the radar. You’ll need specific evidence, such as the unit was not calibrated, or you’ll have to prove a procedural error on the part of the police officer. Make sure that you keep a check list handy of everything that you want to cover during your time in court. If the officer shows up for the trial don’t worry about it, just move on to your next defense level. If the prosecutor has covered all of his bases, move on to the next level after that. All that you can hope for is the best job that you can possibly do in your own defense.
Prepare an alternative plan for every single scenario. Being prepared will give you your best advantage. Be ready to change your tactics at any time and have a good knowledge of your case.
NEXT CHAPTER
BACK TO CHAPTERS LISTING
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HOW TO BEAT SPEEDING TICKETS 