Citation for 65 in 60 in Washington

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Washington.

Mild traffic on the WA-3 South. Cop parked on southbound traffic right-side shoulder of the road near the bottom of a hill. Don't see him, because a truck was in the center lane to my front-right(Directly 45 degree angle, if not slightly ahead of my car) while I was in the 1st lane. Truck slows down heavily right as we're approaching the cop at the bottom of the hill. I see him now, and he's looking right at me instead of the truck(I'd say give or take he was roughly a direct 45 degrees front-right at this point, so 1st Lane to Shoulder...3-4 car lengths?). He's rushing back into his car, so I get ready to pullover because he had that look in his eyes. I say basically nothing to him when he inquires as to why he pulled me over. Says he clocked me at 73 in a 60. He finishes writing the ticket about 2-3 minutes later. Hands it to me saying he reduced it to 65 in a 60, and sends me on my way.

I've spent a few weeks reading into a majority of information for fighting this ticket(Contesting). I'm at the Request for Discovery stage, and I was curious which method you fellows would think is better.

I can either go the route of printing 3 copies, and personally going up to the court office to get it stamped by the Prosecutor and Court Clerk.

OR

I can send the request to the Prosecutor's Office via Certified Mail.(I'm not 100% sure about this method, since I've read in multiple threads/posts that you should make sure to get a copy filed with the court. Is that taken care of when you mail it to the Prosecutor's Office? Need clarification on this if possible.)

Once I get the Affidavit(If I even receive it in time), I plan to post it here for you guys to help me decipher, if it's not too much of a hassle.

Personally, if I was in your situation, I would go for hand delivery.

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Quoting BrendanjKeegan

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Personally, if I was in your situation, I would go for hand delivery.

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+1

.

Yeah, I went for a hand delivery to make sure it's on file with the court, etc. Now we play the waiting game.

I have 1 day left before my court date. I still haven't received any materials from the request for discovery I filed.

If I receive it today, what should my motions be, since it's WAY after the 7-day limit before the court date.

If I don't receive it at all, I have a stamped copy of the request for discovery from when I hand delivered. I assume I would specify that I never received anything from my request for discovery, then present the copy and have the case dismissed. Is there a certain way I would motion for this dismissal?

You hand delivered the request to BOTH the prosecutor and the court, right?

Barry

Yes, hand delivered to both.

OK, assuming the materials don't arrive today, and assuming you have stamped receipts showing the request was delivered 14 days before the hearing, when the prosecutor (or the judge) tries to introduce the officer's report into evidence, say this:

"Your Honor, I move to suppress the officer's statement pursuant to IRLJ 3.1 (b). I have proof of service, if the court wishes to see it."

When the court grants that motion, make a motion for dismissal due to lack of evidence.

The pertinent part of IRLJ 3.1 (b) states:

Quote:

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Quoting IRLJ 3.1 (b)

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If the prosecuting authority, without reasonable excuse or justification, fails to provide any portion of the discovery prior to the day of the hearing, the portion of discovery not provided shall be suppressed.

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Print out three copies of the court rule -- one for the judge, one for the prosecutor, and one for yourself -- just in case.

Now, if the materials arrive today, you can still make the same motion, claiming that one day is NOT adequate time to prepare a defense. The judge may buy that, or not. If they do arrive today, please scan them and post them to a hosting site and place a link here. Maybe we'll see something that will help.

Barry

So the materials arrived today.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9...0417160538.jpg

and

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/8...4171609471.jpg


Note: I was traveling in Lane 1 the entire trip until I had to move over lanes to exit, since the right lane traffic was heavy the whole way up. He mentions he saw me approaching in Lane 3, while I was clearly in Lane 1 the whole time.

- - - Updated - - -

Court date is tomorrow.

I was considering going with something along the lines of:

"Your Honor, I move to suppress the officer's statement pursuant to IRLJ 3.1 (b) with prejudice. The materials did not arrive until yesterday, which is NOT adequate time to prepare my defense. I work a day job, and could not meet with an attorney to discuss this information, as I had originally planned to, had I received these materials earlier than the day before the court date, which left no room to do such; therefore, not allowing for me to be able to properly defend myself."

Anything that you guys feel needs to be tweaked in this motion?

I have a feeling this leaves too much room for a Continuance motion from the Prosecutor. How do you believe I should handle this?


Also, I assume that even though the Lane 3 of 3 is 100% false information, that the only way this would be possibly argued is with verified evidence displaying that I was in Lane 1, or if the officer is subpoenaed to allow for cross-examination of such evidence.

Lanes are counted slow to fast. You have an argument that the officer did not give results of the testing. Not likely much help at this point.