10 Over in a 35, in Fife, Washington

My question involves a speeding ticket from the State of: Washignton

I was allegedly traveling 10 over in a 35 mph at "N/B 1000 54 Ave E". This is a road which is usually heavily patrolled and I always take it easy on as I only have to travel about half a mile from the freeway on it, there is a stop light about half way from the freeway and where I work and the freeway so no point in rushing as I generally miss the light.

This time I had happened to hit the green and went straight on through cruising a normal speed in the bottom of fifth gear (~40 mph sounds about right for this gear, although I was not staring at my speedo the instant this happened). The road is 5 lanes wide (2 each way + turn) I was in the left N/B lane as stated.

The officer was standing behind his motorcycle on the left side of the road to the direction I was traveling (shooting across traffic, although traffic was light and when I got alert I immediately made visual on him so he had line of sight). He was shooing a Pro Laser III and got a reading of "47 @ 345.9ft", he showed the gun while making the stop, I didn't say anything, but immediately recognized the gun. Immediately as I was hit with laser I was alerted to laser by my Passport 8500 x50 so I hit the brakes. Hard. Easily slowing to 30mph in an instant, unfortunately the alert did not last long, at 350 ft I didn't stand a chance even with passive lidar countermeasures.

The traffic was very light (mostly trucks use this road, probably the reason for the very slow 35 mph speed limit) and there was no pedestrian traffic on either side. I can't believe I missed the police motorcycle, he was sitting on a hill in a drive way to a business on the left partially obscured by the trees when you are farther back. Like I said I know area is heavily patrolled and definitely not flying to get to work at the time (the ticket states 12:01pm and I did not have to be to work until 1pm).

The officer followed me until I turned in to where I work (I was still driving pretty slow well under the limit as I saw him hop on his bike in my mirror, no need to run cutting off in to a side street and make things worse) he lit me up while I was making the turn (he was right behind him in the turn lane I was just waiting for the lights it was pretty obvious). I did the basic hands open on the steering wheel while waiting, stayed very quiet and handed him all my documentation when asked, after showing me the gun he asked if I had any prior tickets and I answered "No, and I would like to keep it that way" (truthfully, all previous tickets I have had have been dismissed in court). He merely said "Ok, I'll be right back" left and came back with a ticket saying he would "save me a few dollars and write the ticket for a few mph less". I assume he meant he would write it for 10 over instead of 12. He asked if understood the ticket, I said "Yes". He responded "Ok, drive safe" and walked away (we didn't exchange too many words).

The ticket states:
#1 VIOLATION/STATUTE CODE:
RCW 46.61.400.100.0 <WHAT IS THIS, THERE ARE NO SUBSECTIONS TO 46.61.400!??>
VEHICLE SPEED
45 IN A 35 ZONE

ZONE:
[]SMD []PACE []AIRCRAFT <NONE TICKED!!!!>

Notes section (not titled):
Speeding +10
47 @ 345.9ft

PENALTY:
U.S. $124-

DATE ISSUED:
3-4-09

[x] Served on Violator

Whats in bold is his handwriting.

Now my questions:

First RCW 46.61.400 has no subsections, I'm not exactly sure why it says 46.61.400.10.0. I'm thinking it may be due to the fact he tried to write it as being 10 over regardless I don't know how I can defend myself from a violation of a statute that does not exist.

Second, probably nothing, but he did not tick anywhere on the ticket how he obtained the 47 @ 345.9ft. Obviously this is the format of a lidar reading aka SMD, but I guess this depends on how the judge will read this. Also an error copying vehicle info, he wrote '95 its a '93, again probably nothing.

I plan to prepare my discovery request soon, if anyone has any suggestions of anything extra I should ask for please help me. Also if anyone has something preformatted that I can just add my stuff in to then look over I would appreciate that as well.

Might be worth looking in to a jammer soon :wallbang: even if I was really going 55 I don't think there would be anything to hit on that road, perfectly straight, great visibility, light traffic, dry roads for great traction, why it's so slow on that road I don't know... I hate Fife.

Sorry for the long post, I wanted to be thorough.

Technical followup:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/3892/mapj.th.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5409/visualp.th.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3121/ruler.th.jpg
http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/4516/ruler2.th.jpg

For the angle at which the Lidar hit the front of my car:
cos (345.9/330.9) = 28.74 degrees

Which I suppose really doesn't help my case, but its interesting to put the pieces together.

Wow! Assuming your angle calculations are correct (which they are not), that means you were REALLY travelling 53.6 MPH. Cosine error is NEVER something to bring up in court -- it's ALWAYS in the driver's favor!

But back to your calculations, assuming you were in the far right lane and the officer was about 5 feet off the left side of the roadway, and that each lane is 12 feet wide, that would put the officer about 53 feet laterally from the left edge of your lane. The arcsine of 53/346 is 8.8 degrees. The cosine of 8.8 is about .988, which means that if the officer clocked you at 47, you were actually going 47.56 -- close enough for government work.

As far as your original post and your questions about discovery, you are entitled to a list of witnesses and a copy of the officer's sworn statement -- that's it (see IRLJ 3.1 (b)). I can send you a form you can use if you'll PM me with your email address.

Barry

Absolutely no plans to mention the word cosine in court, looks like there are some flaws w/ my math, I did it quick using a Google search query and didn't do any calculations with it. Doing it on my calculator I got about 1 degree like yous stated, obviously a quick sketch of lines on Google Earth is not science, but I was just looking at things.

Thanks for catching that, my fault. I just thought it was really strange shooting across traffic, not a location I often watch.

Think there is any merit to the fact the stated RCW doesn't match anything? Or does that syntax actually mean something, (I tried a lot of searches without much luck matching anything of that syntax).

Yep, I'm familiar with the IRLJ 3.1 document, I have had other stuff requested in the discovery in the past an got it, so I was curious if it's worth asking for anything else.

Sent you PM,
Thanks

You can ask for anything you want, but the prosecutor is under NO obligation to provide anything other than what's listed in IRLJ 3.1(b), nor will the Court force them to.

I, personally, would certainly bring up the RCW reference. It can't hurt. You may get a sympathetic judge who believes that the police should be able to properly fill out paperwork. I would also point out that the specific section of RCW 46.61.400 is missing -- were you accused of violating the basic speed law, or the posted limit? I would also file an FOIA request to see if there's an engineering study which justifies the 35 MPH speed limit.

Check your email,

Barry

Thanks so much that's exactly what I was looking for.

edit: Do you happen to know more specifically who or what office to serve the FOIA request for any engineering studies on? I'm searching I'll edit my post again if I see something.

My ticket from '04 was in Kent. I addressed my FOIA requests to the Kent City Clerk -- it's on their website. I don't know about Fife.

Barry

I sent the ticket in last Monday (3/16/09) contested checked and still haven't heard back on a court date... Should I be calling them?

Already filed everything for discovery last Friday (3/20/09) and have receipts of filing w/ the court and the receipt from Certified Mail for the letter sent to the prosecutes office. Haven't heard anything back on that yet either.

Did you file a copy of your discovery request with the court, as well? If not, you need to do that.

The court has 21 days from the day they receive your response to send you a hearing notice -- although, even if they don't, you must show prejudice to get it dismissed.

So, sit back and relax -- things will be happening soon enough.

Barry

Yes blewis, I did file with the court, they took one copy and gave me back one with the file stamp on it



Well today I received discovery. It was much shorter than I expected...

The first part was a letter, "RESPONSE TO REQUEST FOR DISCOVERY", said (I'm only copying pieces, most of it doesn't apply):
"COMES NOW City of Fife, through counsel of recored, and certifies that a copy of police reports, including names of prosecution witnesses, was sent to defendant/defense counsel in response to Request for Discovery."

... blah blah blood alcohol test stuff not available blah blah...

"All Speed measuring Device Certifications are on file at Fife Municipal Court at 3737 Pacific Highway East, Fife, WA 98424."

Can they do this, I thought it had to be given in the discovery in order to be used as part of the prosecutor's case?

The second part "PLAINTIFF'S DISCOVERY REQUEST" asks me for my witnesses, "Any books, papers, documents, photographs, or tangible objects which the defendant intends to use in the hearing or trial", expert witnesses, claim of incompetence, prior convictions will be stipulated or need to be proved, rely on insanity, "The general nature of his or her defense", "Plaintiff demands that the Defendant and Defendant's Attorney in this matter comply with all applicable Court Rules, Rules of Evidence and abide by the Rules of Professional Conduct while handling this matter."

Must be sent to them at least 7 days prior to the trial (a date which I still do not know).

I'm not sure I really have any evidence I need to send them, I don't think any pictures, diagrams, etc would do me any good. The only thing that strikes me there is "The general nature of his or her defense" which I'm not exactly sure what they mean.

After their neat little letter I see a copy of the ticket, nothing new, the back is blank, no notes, no weather, traffic, etc circled, no addresses filled in... completely blank.

Then comes the officer's sworn statement. It claims he did 2 range, 2 differential tests, and beam alignment tests on it before and after (ya sure he did :rolleyes:). A one page pre-filled form in which has a couple things circled, the second part claims "no other vehicles or objects were in the path of the LIDAR beam" (but yet he has no problem shooting through traffic to the other side while taking readings!?) .

At the top he crossed out the gun stated and wrote "SEE NOTES". Under notes he put Kustom Signals Pro Laser III, Unit # (removed), Exp - 8-5-2009.

Road conditions - [Wet] / Dry. WHAT!? BS!?!? IT WAS DRY!?!?!?!?
Weather.com history shows .06" of precipitation and clouds all day. It was ****ing dry.
Traffic - [Light] / [Medium] / Heavy. WHAT!? PICK ONE!!! It can't be light and medium at the same time!?

"I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct and that I am a certified LIDAR operator."

Ok, what is his certifications!? Who certified him!? I see none listed?! I've watched someone use a LIDAR gun several times, I've even shot one, does that make me certified?

What about the gun, how was it tested to be certified, I have no records here apparently they are at the court, but who tested and certified it!? What are his qualifications!? Where are they!?

For good or bad they didn't give me much to work with, I see quite a few things missing though, I don't suspect much of a problem winning this one.

I tried to bold my questions.