[Bill Collector]

Here is what happened...

On a weeknight, my wife and I were driving our new car through a rural-ish town (Grafton, OH). It was evening and we were on our way back to her parents house (they were in the backseat) after attending a play at the high school. We both lived in Grafton for a few years and know that the police officers will pull anyone over for no reason at all and search their cars (especially young kids). My wife (who is a baby-face, I'll admit) pulls up to the stop sign, sees the police car parked in the lot across the street with its lights off and makes sure she pulls the car to a complete stop. We proceed to the next sign (about 100 yards down the road) and the car pulls out after her. She makes sure to stop again, and pulls across the street. Just after she crosses the intersection (and is now 200 yards from her parents house and 250 yards from the police station) the officer turns on his lights and pulls her over. He walks up to the car and asks for her insurance card and license. He looks into the car sees me in the front seat and my in-laws (both in their 40's) in the back. He then explains that he pulled her over for running the stop sign that he was watching from the lot. My father in law rolls down his window and states that he feels she did stop at the sign. The officer states that he was not driving and walks back to his cruiser. He returns with the ticket which he has neglected to fill out whether the court date is at 6am or pm, and my wife continues driving to her parents house.

Background- we were stopped in Grafton previously for pulling over in front of a church to check what time Mass was. No citation was written that time, but we were stopped for "acting suspicious".

Personally, I feel that the officer was having a slow night. Saw a car load of people being driven by a young woman, and after running the plate and seeing it was registered to a driver from a city 45 mins away, felt he could pull the car over and give it a good going over and then ticket her for whatever he found, knowing that we lived too far away to take time out and dispute a ticket.

My wife is a hospice social worker and drives from facility to facilty all day. Since she has gotten this job she has been ultra sensitive to traffic laws. The only thingon her record at this time is a ticket for making a right hand turn on red when there was traffic coming from the left. She already had the arraignment in Grafton Mayor's court and her trial date is set for July 11th.

I would like to figure out how to file a motion for discovery to find out what evidence they plan to use to prove she ran the stop sign. All four of the people in the car will be testifying that she stopped. I would also like to ask questions in discovery to show a pattern of pulling over young people at night and issuing citations that are likely to be uncontested.

Any help would be appreciated as I am running low on time at this point.

[Bill Collector]

As an update, the county magistrate in mayors court offered to turn the ticket into a non-moving violation to reduce the points to 0 if she plead no-contest and paid the fine. She plead not guilty instead. Should she just take the offer if they make it available in municipal court?

[aaron]

I would like to figure out how to file a motion for discovery to find out what evidence they plan to use to prove she ran the stop sign. All four of the people in the car will be testifying that she stopped.

Except in the event that the officer had a videotape camera in his car and captured the events on tape, the evidence they will present is probably nothing more than the officer's testimony. If there is a video, you can probably obtain it under your state's freedom of information act.

I would also like to ask questions in discovery to show a pattern of pulling over young people at night and issuing citations that are likely to be uncontested.

You can attempt that, but the judge may choose not to allow the line of questioning.

As an update, the county magistrate in mayors court offered to turn the ticket into a non-moving violation to reduce the points to 0 if she plead no-contest and paid the fine. She plead not guilty instead. Should she just take the offer if they make it available in municipal court?

That's really a personal decision. Many people would prefer the certainty of that outcome to taking a chance on what a judge might do (and perhaps ending up with points).

[Bill Collector]

I guess the major question is this...

How do I find out if the officer will be submitting only his testimony or if he will be also submitting a video tape?

Would that be a part of the motion for discovery?

[aaron]

A videotape shouldn't change your defenses.

If there is a video, you can probably obtain it under your state's freedom of information act.