Multiple Traffic Tickets in Illinois

Illinois

Hi,

The other weekend, I was being chased around 1am by a very angry and rage-filled driver. Essentially, I don't think the details are important because I did what I did and I had other options. So...


I cut down side streets, blowing every sign and speeding. I wasn't paying attention to what speed I was going, because that wasn't my concern at the time. I had 1 passenger in the car. An officer came up behind the guy chasing me and that guy turned down another street. The officer followed him, and I thought that was the end of it so I slowed down and drove legally. I turned on another street about half a mile down, and about another half mile later an officer traveling the opposite direction pulled me over. He asked if I was in an altercation and I explained what happened. He radioed that he was going to get credit for these tickets. The officer came back to the car and issued me 2 tickets for blowing stop signs, and one for going 64 in a 25. I asked to speak with the officer who saw this, so that I could press charges against the other guy, and I was told to go to the police station - which I did, resulting in the door being shut on me.

As I understand it, the officer issuing the tickets does not need to see the violation, as long as someone in the department did, correct?

So what I'm thinking is that the department has no proof that I was in fact the driver at the time of the violations. The original officer who saw the violations was behind the guy behind me the entire time, and I would love him to try to say that he was able to ID me pulling 64 past him in the dark in a dark car with the back windows tinted. In addition to this, my passenger and I look the same - height, weight, hair, complexion. Because there was time in between when the officers saw the car last and when I was pulled over, who is to say that I didn't switch places with the passenger in the car?

Also, the point when the officer said he clocked us going 64 was when he was behind us, so it is possible he only clocked that guy and not me, so can he write a ticket basing it on visually how I am traveling in relation to the other person?

Other information - part of this is on camera, as all of the cars have cameras in them. Can I obtain that tape?

Lastly - I have a mandatory appearance in the local court. Would it be possible and/or better to move it to the county level?

THANKS!

Well, you're in big trouble whether you go city, county, state, whatever.

You will have to decide for yourself what you are going to do.

But why do you think that YOU can change the court?

I didn't think I could, but I didn't know if it was a request that had to be put in or if it was only something that could be done by the judge. I also had no clue if it would help to ask to be moved to the county level, I'm just throwing out everything that I can possibly think of to work around these tickets.