I am a fast driver. I am not a reckless driver. I usually incur about 1 speeding ticket per year. I consider it a driving tax. I have a clean driving record. Here is what I do:
- Be polite and courteous and even friendly with the officer. I keep my hands on the wheel until he approaches and asks for ID or some such. I present requested documents and do not argue the merits of the stop with the officer.
- I contact the court and request a Jury Trial. This will usually result in a far future court date. I often have to explain that "yes" i do want a jury trial.
- The court will usually send notice of a date via mail. They will often a pre-trial hearing date first.
- I will show up to the hearing to discuss the case with the prosecutor.
- This is where I make my case for a dismissal or change of charges and penalties. I have never had a case go past this point unless I felt I had something to prove. Most of the time this is a revenue generation operation so I just offer to pay a fine that day if nothing goes on my record (deferred adjudication). These charges and terms are always negotiable. I just act like I am in a business negotiation with a colleague. They appreciate the professional approach and the lightening of the court case docket. I start with that I am confident that I can convince a jury to find me not guilty. I t has helped that the officer wrote on the back of the citation that I was pleasant during the interaction. Happened twice.
The one time that I wanted to make a point and was truly innocent, I requested the officers training file, the radar gun operation manual, the ticket and any notes made by the officer pertaining to the case. I requested and got a Jury trial. I took questions from the back of the radar gun manual and asked them of the officer. He could not answer but maybe one out of 15 questions.
Me: Officer, what is the effective range of this device?
Officer: I am not a technician.
Me: Your honor, would you direct the officer to answer " I don't know" if he does not know the answer?
Judge: Officer, you must answer with what you know or state that you do not know.
Me: Questions 2-15
Officer: I don't know x 15.
Me to the jury: 15 times the officer said he does not know how this device works. How far, how many cars are in the signal at any given distance, how weather affects it, how to know if a reading is suspect, etc. As far as he is concerned, it is a magic box that he just points out the window and then he guesses what it means.
Prosecutor: obviously the defendant is just trying to get out of a ticket by embarrassing this public servant doing his job.
Jury: Not guilty. It took them 15 minutes to decide.
If I had lost, I would have hired an attorney to appeal.