2 tickets-17 year old
Carfreak18
12-15-2006, 04:21 PM
Alright heres the story,me and my friend were going to meet some people to play football and my friend decides to cut through a trail behind an apartment building and a storage garage,and through all this I stayed on the road, well he hit the garage, not alot of damage at all but anyway after this we meet up where we were supposed to play football and he tells me,we leave and go in the direction we came from, a cop car pulls me over andtells me to stay their while he gets my friend, were all together and he questions us my friend admits to the garage and we go back their and the cops tell me i can leave, I talk to my friend a little later and he got a ticket for leaving the scene of an accident and wreckless driving. Then the cops come to my house a couple hours later and I get 2 tickets for speeding and unauthorized race contest,which is BS..the cop said "well it seems to me you were racing because your friend tried beating you to where you were going". And on top of all this no cop witnessed it only a lady i know who claims i was doing 60 in a 30! their is no way my 2.2 corsica could of gotten up to 60 where she claims because I would of been in a nasty crash, so anyway I went to court and plead not guilty and since my tickets are only violations their not big enough to get a public defender, well my dads making me get a lawyer so I dont lose my license and I have to pay for it. I just dont understand how I can get charged for this if a lady "obsereved me going 60" shes absolutely crazy.
Igovert500
12-19-2006, 04:00 PM
You are in luck as far as I see it. This is all heresay.
Unless that lady comes to court, or your friend comes to court and testifies against you. It is all heresay. As soon as the cop starts describing what happened, your lawyer objects to the judge and says something along the lines of 'heresay, your honor, could the officer please tell the story in his independent point of view'. This nullifies his ability to testify as to what your friend said or what hte lady said.
Now if the lady comes to court or prepares a signed statement, your lawyer attacks her ability to estimate your speed. Is she trained in eyeballing exact speeds? Did she have radar? Did she pace you for an extended period of time? There is no way in hell some innocent bystander can honesty say you were going 60mph. Any half decent lawyer should destroy her testimony.
As far as racing, I doubt your friend is gonna testify against, you. You didn't admit to racing, the cop didn't observe you racing. It takes two to race. Just because your friend said he was trying to get there faster than you were, doesn't mean you were racing. That could mean you were driving the speed limit and he simply got it in his mind to impress his passenger by taking a shortcut and getting there first. It doesn't mean your actions were any different. Hell, for all you know, he got a flat tire and turned off, you didn't know he was racing.
It sucks that you have to pay for a lawyer, but you wanna get these points off your license, and unless you feel like doing alot of reading adn feel confident enough to represent yourself in court for the first time, I'd probably get the lawyer as well. It will keep the points off your license, keep you from paying hte fines, and be a good experience in the long run, for building confidence when you actually do get a speeding ticket you want to represent yourself for. Good luck.
Also, I feel bad for your friend. Hopefully he can get his charges reduced. Although if he admitted too much, he maybe stuck with one or both. Hopefully he learned his lesson. Speeding is fine by me, I do it daily, I just have learned to do it both safely and intelligently. Driving wrecklessly on trails and such through back parking lots gets dangerous. Also I can understand leaving hte scene of an accident, especially if it's your first...you are obviously freaked out and such. But in the future, it is much better to stop, make sure everybody is ok, and try and talk to the owner. Unless they are complete pricks, most people wont press charges or call the cops if you offer to pay 100% of the damages. You pay for the damage that your actions caused, but you don't get screwed with tickets and insurance. Life lesson learned.
Unless that lady comes to court, or your friend comes to court and testifies against you. It is all heresay. As soon as the cop starts describing what happened, your lawyer objects to the judge and says something along the lines of 'heresay, your honor, could the officer please tell the story in his independent point of view'. This nullifies his ability to testify as to what your friend said or what hte lady said.
Now if the lady comes to court or prepares a signed statement, your lawyer attacks her ability to estimate your speed. Is she trained in eyeballing exact speeds? Did she have radar? Did she pace you for an extended period of time? There is no way in hell some innocent bystander can honesty say you were going 60mph. Any half decent lawyer should destroy her testimony.
As far as racing, I doubt your friend is gonna testify against, you. You didn't admit to racing, the cop didn't observe you racing. It takes two to race. Just because your friend said he was trying to get there faster than you were, doesn't mean you were racing. That could mean you were driving the speed limit and he simply got it in his mind to impress his passenger by taking a shortcut and getting there first. It doesn't mean your actions were any different. Hell, for all you know, he got a flat tire and turned off, you didn't know he was racing.
It sucks that you have to pay for a lawyer, but you wanna get these points off your license, and unless you feel like doing alot of reading adn feel confident enough to represent yourself in court for the first time, I'd probably get the lawyer as well. It will keep the points off your license, keep you from paying hte fines, and be a good experience in the long run, for building confidence when you actually do get a speeding ticket you want to represent yourself for. Good luck.
Also, I feel bad for your friend. Hopefully he can get his charges reduced. Although if he admitted too much, he maybe stuck with one or both. Hopefully he learned his lesson. Speeding is fine by me, I do it daily, I just have learned to do it both safely and intelligently. Driving wrecklessly on trails and such through back parking lots gets dangerous. Also I can understand leaving hte scene of an accident, especially if it's your first...you are obviously freaked out and such. But in the future, it is much better to stop, make sure everybody is ok, and try and talk to the owner. Unless they are complete pricks, most people wont press charges or call the cops if you offer to pay 100% of the damages. You pay for the damage that your actions caused, but you don't get screwed with tickets and insurance. Life lesson learned.
Carfreak18
12-19-2006, 09:23 PM
Well im calling the lawyer tommorrow,as for my friend he plead not guilty and hes not aligible for a public defender so we might get the same lawyer and have him represent us both, or we'll do it on our own. And it also does not help that I've been in front of this judge before, but im deffintley getting the lawyer and I'd have to say hes one of the best around, ever heard of bucky philips?..hes representing his family.
Automotive Network, Inc., Copyright ©2026