Officer Cited for a Speeding Ticket, Using an "Visual Estimate"

[dmitriygolos]

My question involves a speeding ticket from the State of: Washington
here is the copy of the officers narrative:

"on 043011 at about 2038hrs i was traveling west on Mill Plain near the 12400blk at a red light. when my light turned green i heard the sound of vehicles accelerating rapidly. In the East bound lanes i noticed a blue vehicle and a gray vehicle accelerating rapidly. I estimated these vehicles were traveling over the posted 40mph speed.

I was able to turn around and contact the vehicles and drivers. They admitted to accelerating rapidly but denied racing.
the drives were identified by there valid divers license. They were issued a citation for violation of the basic rule instead of reckless driving."

For the record, no one admitted to "accelerating rapidly" and i find it very sketchy he could have visually estimated my speed visually, traveling in the opposite direction on a busy street..

[BrendanjKeegan]

Washington has no rule against accelerating rapidly. We do have a rule against screeching tires due to rapid acceleration, or rapid negative acceleration however (See WAC 173-62-030(3)). But the officer makes no statement as to the sound emitted.

Your admission, as per the officer's statement, is not self-incriminating. Don't worry about that.

Post the real statement and block out your name if it is on it. Use tinypic or another image hosting service. There may be other ways to attack it.

[dmitriygolos]

The funny part is that its pretty much his entire narrative.
officer believed me and the other car were racing, we denied it.
since he had very little proof, he said "im going to give you a break and give you a basic speeding violation."
all he talks about in the narrative is "rapid acceleration" yet gives me a basic speeding violation.
here is the entire narrative:

[BrendanjKeegan]

Is it signed? You really have to post the whole page.

[dmitriygolos]

Yes, it was signed and had his name on it.
sorry i will post a picture with the whole thing, when i get another chance to take a picture. that one was saved on my phone.

[dmitriygolos]

here it is


and here is the actual ticket, it looks like there are no flaws.

[BrendanjKeegan]

Move to suppress the officer's written statement on the fact that the prosecution has failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the infraction was committed as the officer has not testified to being trained in visual estimations.

Then move to dismiss or move to find that the infraction was not committed.

Easy.

[dmitriygolos]

thanks so much, i'll let you know how it goes.
in addition, the other vehicle, who is my friend.. has the same exact court date/time.
should i call him as a witness? or not such a good idea.
and he wrote the same exact narrative on his..

[BrendanjKeegan]

I would have him use the same exact motion.

[dmitriygolos]

so, today was my court appearance. i showed up.. and i used and stated that motion..
first words out of here mouth where "based on your findings and motion case dismissed" than i wanted to keep talking about the facts of the case but she basically told me to shut up lol
when my friend came up, she looked at the narrative and said "same ticket?" he replied with a yes. she said "case dismissed."
thanks so much brendan!!