Hi Give me a Coffee. Points for the creative name!
I'm sorry to hear of your situation with the kids. I hope they are feeling better. The fines I think are 200 + whatever surcharge is....Expect another 150 for the surcharge....350 is most likely. Make sure you look at your ticket and look up the ordinance they charged you with. Make sure things like your cars, color, year, make, and model match to your vehicle & registration.
Here is my story, and I hope you can learn from it or draw inspiration.
I got a ticket where the trooper unlawfully gave me a ticket (1225D-Use of portable electronic devices) claiming he saw the device in my RIGHT hand on the Grand Central Parkway just after the Queens border by Lakeville Road exit. i got the ticket at the end of the month on May 24- 7:10pm, so I had a feeling he was padding numbers. The stop took about 10 minutes and he wrote me a ticket. Very annoyed, but I said nothing. Sometimes being quiet is the best thing you can do.
I plead Not Guilty because I did nothing wrong.
Original date, the Trooper did not call, did not show. - morning wasted.
2nd date, the trooper committed, but did not show, yet again. - morning wasted yet again
3rd date, trooper committed, but did not show. Requested dismissal without prejudice based on the 2 missed dates, citing date and times. Threw a jab questioning the validity of the case, considering he couldn't even keep the original court dates and had a no call no show, on day one. The judge did not like that, and rejected the motion. Rescheduled for a 4th date.
4th date, no show for the morning session, but stated he could make an afternoon session. Judge agreed and I burnt yet another day, but I stayed for the afternoon session because I was going to wipe the floor with him at this point. The DA and the trooper requested a sidebar, and claimed to be looking out for me and offered no points, as long as I installed some after maket device that logs if you use your phone while driving. Not sure how it worked, but honestly I wasn't going to shell out $300 for a device, when I did not do what they accused me of.
It comes time for my session in the courtroom.
Trooper testifies that I was driving northbound on GCP, exactly where I was, and stated he saw device on my LEFT hand on the as he was on the left lane. Trooper turned on lights and signaled me to pull over. On the ticket and in the courtroom, he wrote talking while driving, left hand. Judge excuses him and then states what I'm being charged with, and asks me to speak and present evidence.
First piece of evidence was my AT&T Wireless itemized phone bill, on May 24, between 7:00pm-8:00pm. To my expectation, there was no calls placed between that time. In other words, I was not on my phone speaking. On the text message part of my bill, between those hours, there was no line item as well. Guess what, no text was sent during that time.
Second piece of evidence was the weather report for that date and time. It was raining and visibility was low due to fog, from 5pm-9pm that day.
Next, I asked the judge, according to his testimony, the phone was in my LEFT hand, but the ticket he wrote up states my right? Which one is it? Especially since the weather indicates rain and fog, the likelyhood he saw anything was zero. He made the whole thing up.
Judge agreed, case dismissed w/o prejudice. The look on the troopers face was priceless. As we walked out of the room, I told him, "Don't feel bad, the sun shines on a dog's ass every once in a while"
Moral of story, fight if you can. Don't be a victim.
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Unlawful ticket
