Pulled Over After Filling My Gas, Before Leaving the Gas Station

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: MI

I was pulled over in the city of Grand Rapids. I was at a gas station and filled my tank with gas. When I was about to pull out of the gas station, an officer was pulling in, and I was signaled to pull over. I pulled into a parking spot.

I had an exhaust leak of which I was given a verbal warning for. My car registration had also recently expired. After pulling me over, he ticketed me for my expired registration.

I was never observed on the public roadway by the police officer. Can he give me a traffic ticket for this when he never observed me driving on the roadway? The ticket says I was in violation traveling NB on XYZ Ave - of which he never saw me drive on.

What code section were you cited for?

Since gas stations are publicly accessible, I suspect that MI - like most every other state - requires that there be valid registration even in these publicly accessible offstreet parking facilities.

You have the right to argue that the officer stopped you for a MCL 257.707c violation (assuming that's the noise violation at issue) and that you were not yet on the "highway or street" but were merely about to turn onto the street out of the private parking lot. The argument would presumably be that the officer had not yet seen you commit the violation, and thus should not have stopped you until you completed your turn out of the parking lot, and that he only detected that you were driving on a suspended license because he stopped you for the noise violation. If you attempt that, I suggest working with a lawyer who can research, brief and argue the issues for you. Clearly you operated the vehicle on a public road to get to the gas station, and you admit that you intended to enter a public road when you left the gas station, so I'm not sure how sympathetic a court would be to the notion that the officer did not have a reasonable basis to detain you and question you about your defective exhaust system.

Note that if the officer ran your plate before stopping you, as officers often do, he would have detected that your vehicle was not properly registered - and under MCL 257.904 that's a misdemeanor offense even if you never leave the gas station.

Have you registered your vehicle yet? If you have a clean record and have taken care of the registration issue, perhaps the prosecutor will be sympathetic and offer a non-criminal resolution to that charge. Discuss that possibility with your lawyer, when you discuss the possibility of bringing a motion to suppress based upon the initial stop.

The section code was 255.
http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(dkv...me=mcl-257-255

Did you inform the officer that you drove to the gas station? Or, did you tell him someone carried it atop a flatbed to the gas station?

The section states that no such unregistered vehicle shall be operated on a highway. Since it would defy logic to assume your vehicle teleported to the gas station, it seems he had probable cause to believe you drove it there.

As mentioned by Mr. K., if you absolutely have to beat the civil infraction, you can pay a couple thousand for an attorney who can research the relevant case law and try to make a case for you ... MAYBE you might prevail. Your attorney can inform you of the potential for success.

That is to say, you're facing a non-criminal charge? If so, and it were me, I would register my car and consider seeing if I could work out a deal on the fine or a dismissal (even with payment of some costs) based upon proof that the vehicle is now lawfully registered, but I wouldn't push my luck too hard lest the prosecutor decide to dismiss and refile the charge as criminal. But if your life is more charmed than mine, it's your call to make.

Its obvious that I drove there. I was mostly questioning the legality of being pulled over before I even entered the public roadway. The attorney option is out of the question and I would simply represent represent myself for a basic civil infraction.

I am immediately renewing my plates and consider either admitting responsibility with explanation hoping that the fines may be dismissed or denying responsibility and explaining the situation.

How do you know the cop didn't see you driving?