Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
My question involves traffic court in the State of: North Carolina
on 2/20 my wife was issued a citation for 71mph in a 55mph zone. Strangely she was not speeding when she passed the officer, but he apparently didn't like something she did, and chased her down, and recorded her speeding somewhere along the way. The ticket was written for speeding, not whatever it was that irritated him in the first place. He was off the side of the road cleaning trash or something, and thought she went by too fast, even though she says she'd slowed down to less than 45 and he was well off the road when she went by. Of course none of that is relevant to the speeding ticket but still a bit frustrating.
Neither of us have any prior tickets in NC, and were pretty confused at why it indicated a required court appearance rather than just paying online like usual, so I looked into it and found the law states if you're speeding MORE than 15mph over AND going more than 55mph then it's a class 3 misdemeanor, mandatory court appearance and automatic 30 day license suspension. Apparently this is the strictest law of its type in the country, but anyway we wanted to appeal this somewhat since the ticket was written for the minimum amount to warrant the increased penalty, it seemed as though the officer specifically wanted this increased penalty.
I contacted the district attorney for the court, who indicated he would be willing to help us out since this was a first offense and was right on the line of qualifying for the increased penalty, but the ticket has not been entered in the system.
Is there a time limit in NC for how long an officer has to enter the ticket? It has been 3 weeks now, and the court calendar for the date listed on the ticket (3.25) is already published, also I looked up citations issued by the officer, and there are several in the system that were issued later, and have court dates up to 4/29. It seems like he just forgot to enter the ticket or it got lost or something.
If we do need to go to court I had wanted to hire an attorney, but since the DA indicated he could help out, I was waiting to see what the options were, but nobody can do anything if the ticket isn't in the system.
In NC do the calendars get revised after they've been published (could she still be added?)?
I hate to keep bugging the DA when there's nothing he can do yet, but we also need to be making court arrangements if she really does need to appear on the 25th...
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
I don't understand your first paragraph at all. There's no sportsmanship requirements in law enforcement. She violated the law when she sped past him and by the time he got to her she had committed greater magnitude crimes. That's just gravy for the cop.
I'd wait until a day or two before the current scheduled court date. It should be in the system by then. No there's no requirement that things be "entered in the computer." You've been notified of your court date and the paper pushing is entirely superfluous. It wouldn't hurt to consult with an attorney but if the DA is willing to plead down and for some reason does not do that at/before trial, you can always ask for a continuance to obtain counsel.
The "calendar" is always a fluid thing. It's possible that the case might get bumped (often if the work schedule of the officer changes or some other factor backlogs the court like the recent weather...don't know what portion of NC you are in). Check prior to going to court.
A PJC sounds like an option even if you don't plead down.
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
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flyingron
I don't understand your first paragraph at all. There's no sportsmanship requirements in law enforcement. She violated the law when she sped past him and by the time he got to her she had committed greater magnitude crimes. That's just gravy for the cop.
I'd wait until a day or two before the current scheduled court date. It should be in the system by then. No there's no requirement that things be "entered in the computer." You've been notified of your court date and the paper pushing is entirely superfluous. It wouldn't hurt to consult with an attorney but if the DA is willing to plead down and for some reason does not do that at/before trial, you can always ask for a continuance to obtain counsel.
The "calendar" is always a fluid thing. It's possible that the case might get bumped (often if the work schedule of the officer changes or some other factor backlogs the court like the recent weather...don't know what portion of NC you are in). Check prior to going to court.
A PJC sounds like an option even if you don't plead down.
Thanks for your response. I understand the reason he chased her down is irrelevant as she was apparently speeding at the time he caught up with her, but it's still rather bizarre that he felt the need to chase her down (re-read it, she slowed down to at least 10mph UNDER the speed limit when she passed him, and he was not in his car when she went by, he was off in a field picking up trash). I wasn't there, so just going off what she said, but it left a bad taste in her mouth that he felt the need to chase her down, and when he pulled her over told her "the only reason I came after you is because you didn't slow down enough when you went past my car back there"... no idea what "slowing down enough" is?
The rest of your post is pretty much what I expected, it's just frustrating, also noting that the officer has entered several tickets in the system after hers was issued. I've had 4 speeding tickets in my life and paid all online no more than 2-3 days after I received them.
Having moved here from PA the idea of 16 over being a class 3 and license suspension is a little shocking.... My daily commute in PA involved going 70+ in a 45, with the flow of traffic (I was usually one of the slowest), passing "speed traps" without thinking twice.. But the law is the law, I understand that, just was floored when I read it!
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
Don't ever get caught doing 80 in Virginia while transiting from NC to PA by the way, if you think NC jurisdictions are bad....
If you pass a emergency vehicle with it's lights operating and you are not able to move over you need to SUBSTANTIALLY slow down. Yeah, it's not stated what that is, but buzzing a cop on the side of the road at 45 is still petty bad.
You need to get over the "it's unfair he followed me." He followed her after she broke one law. I've been followed by the cops after breaking ZERO laws (I used to work at night so I got a lot of ...let's see if we can come up with an excuse to pull this guy over to see if he's drunk). It's not even bad police work.
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
So did the officer have his lights on while she passed him?
How did he measure her speed, was it radar or did he pace her?
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
Or was there an unoccupied lane she could have merged into in order to be over further.
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
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flyingron
If you pass a emergency vehicle with it's lights operating and you are not able to move over you need to SUBSTANTIALLY slow down. Yeah, it's not stated what that is, but buzzing a cop on the side of the road at 45 is still petty bad.
You need to get over the "it's unfair he followed me." He followed her after she broke one law. I've been followed by the cops after breaking ZERO laws (I used to work at night so I got a lot of ...let's see if we can come up with an excuse to pull this guy over to see if he's drunk). It's not even bad police work.
Again how slow is slow enough? This isn't in any way relevant to the ticket in question, just an annoyance that sorta makes the officer seem less than reasonable... but the ticket itself doesn't mention anything of the sort, just 71 in a 55. My wife was just really upset that he told her that's the only reason he followed her, and she thought she was going really really slow when she passed him, and that he was out of his car, and at least several hundred feet from the road at the time. She did say his lights were on which is why she slowed down to pass.
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yyz0
So did the officer have his lights on while she passed him?
How did he measure her speed, was it radar or did he pace her?
I am assuming he paced her since he was not near his car when she passed him, (and she claims to have been going nowhere near 71 at the time), I know you can use radar to measure "relative" speed. I think there was an indication on the ticket but it was a single letter code that didn't mean anything to me to tell how he measured. I do find it odd that the ticket was written for the minimum speed that results in a dramatically higher penalty.
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Mephis
Or was there an unoccupied lane she could have merged into in order to be over further.
It's a 2 lane rural highway.
I did receive another response from the DA saying to not worry about the court date until/unless we hear from him, and he was going to have someone "bird dog" the issue as to why the ticket hasn't been entered in a reasonable time.
Bad part about NC? 16 over is a license suspension... Good part about NC, you can e-mail the DA and get a helpful response the same day!
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
If the DA is unwilling to negotiate the ticket down, your wife can get what's called a prayer for judgment continued (PJC), as mentioned earlier, which is subject to the judge's discretion rather than the DA's. A PJC is a finding of guilt, but judgment is deferred. Effectively, you have to pay court costs, but you don't have to pay the fine (up to $200 for a class 3 misdemeanor) and you avoid both DMV points and insurance points (which, for 66-75 in a 55, is two insurance points, meaning a 45% surcharge for the next three years), subject to good behavior for a given period of time.
However, if either of you get another ticket in the following three years that would be subject to insurance points, you wouldn't be able to avoid insurance points with another PJC. (Notably, you're allowed to use a PJC to hide DMV points twice every five years.)
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
How does one request/get a PJC? That seems like a good option as well.
We both have clean driving records up to this point (incidentally when I had a PA license I got 4 tickets out of state.. PA does not record out of state offenses, so nothing ever showed up on my driving record even immediately after I got tickets.. but the most recent was about 10 years ago now anyway), I'm pretty rigid about staying within 5mph of the limit, basically use my cruise control for this.
And now that we know 15 over is a big deal here, we're both being extra careful, so hopefully no more for another 3+ years.
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
Well, the ticket was finally entered, so the DA was able to look at it, and said he is going to amend it to improper equipment/non-moving violation. I can't figure out how the fine schedule works for this, but it's bound to be better than a license suspension and insurance points!
Re: Misdemeanor Speeding Ticket in North Carolina
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mackguy
Well, the ticket was finally entered, so the DA was able to look at it, and said he is going to amend it to improper equipment/non-moving violation. I can't figure out how the fine schedule works for this, but it's bound to be better than a license suspension and insurance points!
That's a plus.
Yes, non-moving violations don't carry any points, and I think the fine is $25 plus court costs and a $50 surcharge, resulting in a total of $258. Definitely better than the misdemeanor conviction (up to $200 plus costs).