Ok, here are the details on my court date appearance.
I arrived to court early in the morning a little nervous and anxious. There were only 3 people present at court and all were State trooper cases. I took a glance at the other side of the court and noticed there are only 2 state troopers. This got me a little excited as I was hoping the missing officer is the one that cited me.
Case 1
The magistrate calls the first defendant which was not me and calls the trooper who pulled him over, Trooper not present. Here goes what might've been my free easy pass down the drain. The magistrate then asks one of the present troopers if he knows the missing trooper and he replies with a yes. He asked if he can give him a ring to find out if he can come to court before he calls the judge into court since there are only 3 cases. The officer steps out to make a call and comes back five minutes later while we all waited for him. He tells the magistrate that the officer had been in an accident and is now in a hospital so he can’t make it. The magistrate declares the first case not responsible because the officer is not present to witness, case dismissed. Easy win for the lucky bastard.
Case 2
The judge is called in for the remaining 2 cases to court. The magistrate calls the other case which was a radar citation. The officer starts to testify from the witness stand about the details of the citation. The defendant interrupts the officer while he’s testifying and asks him:
Defendant: I’m sorry to interrupt, but you were using radar correct?
Officer: yes
Defendant: So you were not using a lidar gun which is target specific? Correct?
Officer: yes
Defendant immediately makes his statement to the judge on how radar uses dopler which scans a general area up to a mile. He was apparently representing someone else so he proceeds to ask the judge to dismiss his client’s citation due to the fact he was using radar and not a lidar gun which is target specific.
Officer makes his last statement stating the vehicle was the only one on the road and that it was 1AM at night.
Judge signs the paper work and declares him not responsible.
I was shocked as I thought in my head the judge is definitely going to nail him with a guilty finding since the officer testified it was the only vehicle on the road and it’s plausible that it could’ve been the only vehicle on the road since it was 1AM.
Also, I felt like my chances in beating my ticket was badly deteriorating as this guy kept mentioning how lidar guns are accurate and how they are target specific unlike radar. He mentioned how lidar guns were good so many times that I almost wanted to stand and object or to smack the guy in the back of his head and tell him his making my case harder and harder.. hahaha.
Case 3 – My case
Now my case is called and the officer is asked to stand on the witness stand. The officer testifies from his notes that he observed a speeding vehicle on the highway then used his lidar gun to get the speed reading. The judge then asks me if I want to ask the officer any questions and I replied yes and that I would also like to share the exhibits I brought with her.
I make my opening statement on how I was not going over the speed limit and that the officer most likely made an honest mistake in pulling over the wrong vehicle.
I then proceeded to share the exhibits I had with the judge. They were basically exhibits A through F with map drawings of a re-enactment of what happened and how his lidar gun clocked the vehicle that was passing me from my right.
Me to the officer as I show him exhibit A: is this where your vehicle was located at the time of the citation?
Officer: I don’t recall
I then proceed to explain to the judge how the officer’s cruiser was located on a downhill part of the highway which would make it impossible for him to observe what was happening beyond 1000 feet. I demonstrated from the exhibits how I observed from my rear view mirror a fast vehicle approaching on my lane on the other side of the hill where the officer had no visual from where he was located.
I then provided the judge with documents on how lidar gun beams get wider as the distance increases ( Thanks to the info I found here on this forum ). I explained to the judge that the officer aimed his lidar gun at my vehicle from over 850 feet which would translate to about 3 feet of laser beam width according to the documents.
The judge reviews the documents and exhibits then asks the officer if he saw the documents that show how laser beam increases over distance. He replies that he have seen something similar before. The judge then takes the documents and tells me that she will use them and assess my case under advisement. She then tells me you’re free to go and that I will receive a decision back in the mail. I was a little confused as I have never heard of this before.
2 days later, I receive a Not Responsible letter in the mail. I think the judge couldn’t make a decision on the spot because she didn’t want to send the trooper’s home completely defeated on all cases as I was the only case left and all other cases were already dismissed.
I think a major part of my success in beating the ticket is:
--- The clear and detailed diagrams.
--- Question the credibility of the lidar gun
--- And maybe… because I didn’t request a discovery, the officer was less prepared?? The officer on the hearing is the one who spelled out the distance to what the citing officer clocked me from. And to me, that was the only crucial information I needed at the time. I wish I did a discovery though just to be sure which Lidar gun was used.
Here are the documents and exhibits I used:
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I still have other documents I used but I'm not sure how to post it. send me you your e-mail and I'll be more than happy to send it over if anyone here is interested
