Contesting a Failure to Stop at a Red Light Ticket

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Quoting Arturia

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Final update.
I had to pretend I don't speak English in order to get the law clerk to back off on trying to get me to identify the driver and let me do the arraignment.

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For future reference, no one can deny you arraignment, least of all a clerk. You just need to stand up for yourself.
And if you tell the judge it wasn't you, and there is no cop to testify otherwise, he must look at the picture. If it does not fit, he must acquit. This is not contingent on your willingness to snitch on someone else.

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Quoting kokobill

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For future reference, no one can deny you arraignment, least of all a clerk. You just need to stand up for yourself.
And if you tell the judge it wasn't you, and there is no cop to testify otherwise, he must look at the picture. If it does not fit, he must acquit. This is not contingent on your willingness to snitch on someone else.

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This is not entirely true ... The JUDGE can ask the defendant who it was in the car, and the defendant had best consider his reply carefully lest he or she be found in contempt of court. While it is likely that a defendant registered owner of a car may get acquitted if the picture is clearly not his, the court can also demand that the defendant identify the person in the photo. What consequences there might be for declining to answer is the big question.

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Quoting cdwjava

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This is not entirely true ... The JUDGE can ask the defendant who it was in the car, and the defendant had best consider his reply carefully lest he or she be found in contempt of court. While it is likely that a defendant registered owner of a car may get acquitted if the picture is clearly not his, the court can also demand that the defendant identify the person in the photo. What consequences there might be for declining to answer is the big question.

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It would be highly inappropriate for the judge to ask that in this circumstance. I happen to have observed quite a few of these, and it has never happened. In fact, some judges will dismiss these off hand saying words to the effect of "I don't find the picture to be proof beyond reasonable doubt."

If the judge did ask, though, the safe answer exists, and it is "I don't know."

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Quoting kokobill

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It would be highly inappropriate for the judge to ask that in this circumstance. I happen to have observed quite a few of these, and it has never happened. In fact, some judges will dismiss these off hand saying words to the effect of "I don't find the picture to be proof beyond reasonable doubt."

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Just because you have never seen something does not mean that it either a. cannot happen or b. has not happened.

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Quoting kokobill

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If the judge did ask, though, the safe answer exists, and it is "I don't know."

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And if you do know, that is perjury if you are under oath.

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Quoting free9man

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Just because you have never seen something does not mean that it either a. cannot happen or b. has not happened.



And if you do know, that is perjury if you are under oath.

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No one can prove that. And no one will bother trying.

Again, you are a peculiar one.

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Quoting kokobill

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No one can prove that. And no one will bother trying.

Again, you are a peculiar one.

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I'm sorry. Forgive me for not recommending that someone commit a crime by lying under oath, regardless of whether it can be proven or not. We don't do that here.

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Quoting kokobill

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It would be highly inappropriate for the judge to ask that in this circumstance. I happen to have observed quite a few of these, and it has never happened. In fact, some judges will dismiss these off hand saying words to the effect of "I don't find the picture to be proof beyond reasonable doubt."

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Sure, it happens. I've even seen it! You may think it inappropriate

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If the judge did ask, though, the safe answer exists, and it is "I don't know."

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Great advice ... change an infraction punishable by a fine to a misdemeanor punishable with jail time. You really think that a judge is simply going to accept that answer? I can foresee the follow-up being, "So, when was the car stolen?"

A better course of action might be to politely decline to answer and see if the judge will push the issue or not.

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Quoting cdwjava

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Sure, it happens. I've even seen it! You may think it inappropriate


Great advice ... change an infraction punishable by a fine to a misdemeanor punishable with jail time. You really think that a judge is simply going to accept that answer? I can foresee the follow-up being, "So, when was the car stolen?"

A better course of action might be to politely decline to answer and see if the judge will push the issue or not.

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Like I said, perjury cannot be proven. More than one member of the household may be allowed to drive your car, and the picture may not be very good. And I hope you are not going to moralize about that. This hypothetical judge is trying to make you give up a family member to an arbitrary infraction of rolling thru the right turn on a red light that harmed no one. Being held in contempt for declining to answer or prosecuted for perjury if answering "I don't know?" It will never happen.

But you are probably right that declining to answer is the better way. That's what I would do.