Careless Driving in New Jersey

Today I was pulled over for careless driving. I'm 17 years old and I was going down Rt. 18 South when I hit a red light. On the right of me was an Acura RSX revving it's engine at me so I thought to myself why not just try to pull on him a bit. The light turned green and I launched my car and took it up to about 30mph which is definetly under the speed limit, but my tires squealed a little bit. The Acura smiled at me and then went on its way. One light down was another red light. When it turned green I normally drove and was doing the limit, if not under. I saw a car with no lights on beside me and was trying to get into my lane so naturally I moved up a bit so he could get behind me. Next thing I see are blue and red lights in my rearview. I pull over as quickly as I can and turn my car off and turn my dome light on. The cop comes over and says that I can get my license taken away due to reckless driving. I looked at him with a confused look and then said you know what I'm talking about, doing a burnout. I sort of nodded my head, but I didn't acknowledge him nor did I disagree. My friend who is 17 was in the passenger seat and my other friend who is 16 was in the back. I do not have backseats in the back due to weight reduction/working on my car. The cop saw my friend in the back and said that there's not even seatbelts back there, but there actually was, there was just no seats and my friend wasn't wearing the seatbelt. (I'm almost positive that New Jersey law doesn't require back passengers to wear seatbelts.) The cop had a fellow police officer with him too and all I hear him say was, "All I hear was *car revving sound* and then *squealing sound*, probably trying to race someone." I'm almost definite that he didn't see me do it. Also the car that was "trying" to race me also launched his car. So he goes back to his car for a bit and comes back with a ticket that has careless driving on it. My court date is October 10, 2006. He said that I since the checkbox was checked I have to show up for court and since I'm a minor a parent has to come with me. He also showed me on the back that there was a plea of not guilty. In order to do a plea of not guilty the summon says that I have to call 7 days in advance prior to the court date. I'm not sure what I should do. I know that he heard me and I'm pretty sure he didn't see me. The other thing is, if he knew I was "street racing" he would've took it a lot more serious . This is the first time I've ever gotten pulled over.

For my defenses I've thought of:

1. There was no way to prove that I was the one who did a "burnout" because there was a car next to me that also did a "burnout".
2. A "burnout" would mean that my tires would be smoking and I wouldn't be moving much, but I was at a light so that would mean I would have to be moving forward.
3. I would tell the judge that this happened on a highway with traffic which wouldn't even make sense to try to race or do a burnout.
4. I'm new to driving stick and I gave it too much gas.
5. My throttle body got stuck and I slipped the clutch out too much.

I'm not sure what to do. I really want to fight this because I feel that he didn't have a legit reason to pull me over. He said that he "heard" it, but if he said he heard it that pretty much means he didn't see what I did. Please try to help a stupid kid out. :(

Before you consider ANY of these excuses, you should ask the court clerk (at the no. on the back of the ticket) how to request Dislosure. This is the evidence the Prosecutor will use against you, as provided by the officer(s), which you have a right to see. Once you know exactly what they saw, heard, etc. you'll have a better idea how to defend.

Most jurisdictions have a statute along the lines of "Unecessary Noise" which the Prosecutor may agree to in order to avoid a trial. A little searching on the internet should help you find this info.

BTW, I'm still chuckling over the image of a kid sitting in the back, seatbelt on,... but NO SEAT!! LOL
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I called the number on the back of the ticket and the lady told me that they don't have dislosure there, they have discover or something like that. I asked her if it was the same thing as about finding out what the cop wrote me a ticket for and what he would use against me and she said yes. I have to go there and fill out a form, so I guess I'm going to be heading there tomorrow since it just closed. I'll follow up on this when I get back tomorrow.

By the way, what are the chances that the cop won't even show up in court and have the ticket dropped?

Oops, sorry... spelled "disclosure" wrong. That's what they call it here in Canada, but "discovery" sounds like the same thing down there.

It's nice seeing the officer's "take" on the events before scratchin' out a valid defense ;)

GL
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