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Discovery for a Speeding Ticket With Incorrect Information

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  • 06-04-2013, 09:18 PM
    JunYong
    Discovery for a Speeding Ticket With Incorrect Information
    My question involves traffic court in the State of: Washington

    I received an undeserved school zone speeding ticket that I am going to contest. Court hearing date is next week. I scrutinized police officer's sworn affidavit but did not find any obvious points to use for my evidence in the court. It was a SMD ticket (handheld Radar). The officer filed it the same day he pulled me over, wrote everything he must write in the affidavit, including date, time, his location, Radar serial number, radar position (stationary), and radar mode (stationary). He stated that he was an experienced officer, described the incident in details and also gave the serial numbers of the two tuning forks he used to calibrate the radar before and after his shift. Apparently nowadays in Bellevue police officers just fill out a fixed form format for this kind of affidavit writing so that the required info is complete and nothing gets omitted.

    However, he did make one small error in the affidavit. He put an incorrect radar model name by missing one letter from its name. For example, he wrote "I was using a Staker III Radar unit, serial number xxxxx, ...". I went to the court to check out radar certifications, and I only found documents on the radar model named Stalker III, not Staker III. He did put down the correct radar serial number though.

    So can I use this mistake to defend myself? How do I do it? Will the judge argue it was an acceptable typo on the Officer's side and not sufficient ground to dismiss the ticket? After all, he did write the correct radar serial number.

    Long story short, I was greatly surprised to be pulled over by the officer and I doubt the accuracy of the clocked speed from him (35mph in a 20mph zone), but I know judges do believe officers a lot more than us defendants! I am also thinking of contesting by mail since they gave me this choice (came with the court hearing date notification). I am not a native speaker, and I am not an assertive person either, which give me disadvantages in the court. In writings I can communicate better. Also this is the one and only speeding ticket I received in my 20-year driving history, needless to say I am extremely inexperienced with traffic court.

    Thank you for any input you could give! Appreciate your time!

    -Jun
  • 06-04-2013, 09:27 PM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Discovery for a Speeding Ticket With Incorrect Information
    A trivial clerical error that has caused you no confusion will provide you with no defense to your ticket.
  • 06-04-2013, 09:50 PM
    JunYong
    Re: Discovery for a Speeding Ticket With Incorrect Information
    Thank you for confirming that! So I would not use that as defense in the court to make myself look like a fool. Another question is: before I was pulled over by him, I noticed that officer at the T-intersection with Radar in his hand, but he was moving around observing traffic from 3 roads, he was not "stationary" as he described in his statement. I believe he may clocked a different car in his busyness. But how do I make myself sound credible given that everyone here says judges believe what's written on the sworn statement more? Thanks again for helping me!
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