Dismissal Due to Officer's Failure to Submit Affidavit

My question involves traffic court in the State of: Washington

I came to North Pacific District Court ready to make a motion for dismissal of my speeding ticket pursuant to IRLJ 2.2 (d), as the time between the infraction being issued and the "FILED" stamp on the courts copy was 7 working days.

Special thanks here to Barry and his very detailed thread:

http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/show...t=89115&page=6

I was actually pretty excited to do this since this would be my first time making a legal argument on my own behalf. So when it was my turn in the court docket, I was called to the defense table where I laid out all my materials and notes.

However, before I was asked to make my defense, the judge raised her head and said to me, "I'm sure you had something interesting to say but the officer didn't get an affidavit in so we're going to dismiss this ticket."

:wallbang:

I waited till the end of the docket and I asked her if I could ask a few questions about my case off the record and she said "I don't think I will allow that." A little strangely phased I thought, but never-the-less exactly the reason why I am now turning to my friends at expertlaw for help in understanding.

:)

My main confusion stems from the fact that in my discovery materials I did receive a document titled "Speed Measuring Device Infraction Report - Affidavit of Officer". Is this not the officer's affidavit that the judge referred to? Is another affidavit required?

Should I have recognized that this second affidavit was not included in the discovery package and known that I wouldn't have to be making my 2.2 (d) non-conformance motion after-all?

Any clarification or help would be very much appreciated!

-Sam

Yes -- the "Affidavit" is, indeed, the sworn statement or officer's report or whatever you want to call it.

Sounds like it got removed from the file for some reason -- sometimes an officer may ask to amend the report or modify something in it. When they are done, they hand it back to one of the clerks, who would then replace it in the file. It probably just got misfiled, so that the court file no longer contains a copy. We call that "dumb luck" -- but, hey, a win is a win.