10 Over in a 35, in Fife, Washington

Well this is interesting, I received a notice of hearing letter from the court...

It is a date for my "CONTESTED PRE TRIAL" which I guess I am allowed to waive if I see fit.

Timeline:
Ticket - 3/4/2009
Contested letter received 3/17/2009 - 13 days from ticket date
Notice of hearing written - 4/7/2009 - 34 days from ticket date, 21 days from contested received
Notice of hearing mailed (postdate) - 4/8/2009 - 35 days from ticket date, 22 days from contested received
Notice of hearing received - 4/10/2009 - 37 days from ticket date, 24 days from contested received
Pre-Hearing date - 4/21/2009 - 48 days from ticket, 14 days from notice written, 13 days from notice mailed, 11 days from notice received.

Quote:

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Quoting IRLJ 2.6

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(i) If authorized by local court rule, a defendant who
requests a contested hearing may first be scheduled for a
prehearing conference, which shall be scheduled for not less than
14 days from the date the written notice of the hearing is sent
by the court nor more than 45 days from the date of the notice of
infraction or the date a default judgment is set aside, unless
otherwise agreed by the defendant in writing.

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According to the postdate, it was sent on the 8th which is 13 days prior to court date! Should be 14 or more. Strike 1.

The pre-trial is 48 days from the ticket. They have 45. Strike 2.

Quote:

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Quoting IRLJ 2.6

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(4) The infraction may be dismissed upon a showing of
prejudice if the court does not send a defendant written notice
of a hearing within 21 days of receipt of the request for a hearing.

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We discussed this before, I would argue it is at least 22 days, but I can't prove prejudice, so I will ignore this one.

Quote:

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Quoting IRLJ 2.6

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(d) Objection to Hearing Date. A defendant who objects to the
hearing date set by the court upon the ground that it is not
within the time limits prescribed by this rule shall file with
the court and serve upon the prosecuting authority a written
motion for a speedy hearing date within 10 days after the notice
of hearing is mailed or otherwise given to the defendant. Failure
of a party, for any reason, to make such a motion shall be a
waiver of the objection that a hearing commenced on such a date
is not within the time limits prescribed by this rule. The
written notice of the hearing date shall contain a copy of IRLJ 2.6(d).

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So I get to prepare my document to serve on court/prosecutor.

I'm thinking of mailing it on day 8 certified to prosecutor (I'm not driving to Snohomish). So that I can make sure I get my receipt in time. I can serve the copy to the court on day 10 in person. BUT would it be better to mail it to the court so that they do not have a chance to mail me a new date? I'm thinking if I serve it in person they may just reschedule it right then and there...

If I mail it and receive only my certified mail receipts and do not receive anything from the court I will show up 4/21/2009 with proof I served my request for a speedy trial and received nothing which I believe would be grounds for dismissal.

Quote:

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Quoting IRLJ 2.6

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(f) Dismissal With Prejudice. An infraction not brought to
hearing within the time period provided by this rule shall, upon
motion, be dismissed with prejudice.

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So I'm going in, dressed professional, and saying something along the lines of

Quote:

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Your honor, I have found numerous flaws with the infraction served upon myself. I am displeased with the manor in which the court has handled my case. You will see the ticket was served on myself 48 days ago March 3rd, 2009. The notice of hearing for the pre-trial was mailed to me 13 days ago March 8th, 2009 according to the postdate on the letter sent to me of which I have a copy right here.

Pursuant to IRLJ 2.6 section A paragraph i, the court must assign the pre-trial date to be within 45 days of the date of the notice of infraction and the notice of pre-trial shall be sent at least 14 days prior to today.

Pursuant to IRLJ 2.6 section D I have sent a written motion for a speedy trial within 10 days after the notice of hearing is mailed, you may review copies of the Certified Mail receipts for the letters I have sent to the court and the prosecutor's office here.

Pursuant to IRLJ 2.6 I motion for a dismissal with prejudice based upon the provided evidence for not following the guidelines set in the IRLJ rules.

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What else is supposed to go on during the pre-trial anyway? In the past my attorney has always waived them. It seems silly to have TWO trials for a simple speeding ticket.

I plan on tomorrow putting together a folder with tabs so I can flip between my copies of evidence of dates quickly and it will be very clear what I am presenting.



edit: Also upon reading the rules, it says if I want to defer my ticket I MUST do so before I continue on to the contested hearing. Once I elect for the contested hearing or waive the pre-hearing I no longer am eligible to defer the infraction.

edit2: I also found some evidence of how the certification of the LIDAR gun is substantially different from that of IRLJ 6.6 which is just another attack I can use if all else fails... I wrote some notes on the certification.

Quote:

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Quoting blewis

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Yeah, more than likely it's just a "form" letter that is sent out with ALL discovery requests. However, if you want to have some real fun, ask for sanctions against the prosecutor's office. Your claim is that the letter is an illegal attempt to harrass you, cause you to spend time, money, and effort to comply with their illegal request. You put together all the information about your defense and you were about ready to mail it when you read IRLJ 3.1(b) and realized that this was just a smoke screen to get you to waste resources. LOL. That should get the prosecutor to backpedal. Probably won't score you any points with the judge though.

But, yes, I would question the RCW citation and the officer's qualifications. BTW, are you eligible for a deferral? If so, that's worth considering.

Barry

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I sorta figured it out, the letter calls on CrRLJ rules... This is an infraction case, they do not apply. CrRLJ applies only to a criminal case. I assume they included it for the reasons I stated before, to get me to voluntarily divulge information I did not have to... Sneaky and not exactly nice.




edit:
Order of Importance:
1) Dates

a. Pre-trial > 45 days from infraction notice

b. Notice <14 days from pre-trial

c. Notice >21 days from contested hearing request

i. (No evidence of prejudice, useless)

2) Illegal prosecutor request for discovery – Harassment

a. NOT criminal case, IRLJ 3.1(b) “No further discovery shall be required”

3) Invalid Citation

a. Invalid ordinance number, No subsections of RCW46.61.400

b. Basic speed law or over posted limit?

4) No officer training

a. None mentioned whatsoever

5) No information on certifications

a. Is the certifying person recognized?

6) LIDAR certification is not substantially like IRLJ 6.6

a. Agency does not state they maintain or repair the SMD’s “used by ____ (name of agency).”

b. Does not mention “This agency currently uses the following SMD’s: (List all SMD’s used and their manufacturers and identify which SMDs use laser technology.)”

Also should the whole invalid citation be brought up at the pre-trial if the dates argument doesn't go over well since it would be a preliminary motion?

Oh, NONE of this can be brought up at the pre-hearing conference. There will only be you and the judge (probably a pro tem) -- no prosecutor to answer any of the motions for dismissal. Remember, the pre-hearing conference is just to offer you a deferral, if you're eligible, and to set a hearing date. You will probably have to list any motions you plan to bring up at the hearing, though, and whether you want to subpoena the officer -- just so they have an idea of how long it will take.

In my own case -- almost 5 years ago -- my prehearing conference was scheduled 52 days after the citation. I moved for dismissal (at the actual hearing not the pre-hearing) based on that fact. The judge agreed that it was beyond the time set in the rule, but didn't believe that "dismissal" should be the remedy. I asked what the remedy should be, and the judge said he didn't know, but "it's not dismissal."

Barry

Quote:

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Quoting blewis

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Oh, NONE of this can be brought up at the pre-hearing conference. There will only be you and the judge (probably a pro tem) -- no prosecutor to answer any of the motions for dismissal. Remember, the pre-hearing conference is just to offer you a deferral, if you're eligible, and to set a hearing date. You will probably have to list any motions you plan to bring up at the hearing, though, and whether you want to subpoena the officer -- just so they have an idea of how long it will take.

In my own case -- almost 5 years ago -- my prehearing conference was scheduled 52 days after the citation. I moved for dismissal (at the actual hearing not the pre-hearing) based on that fact. The judge agreed that it was beyond the time set in the rule, but didn't believe that "dismissal" should be the remedy. I asked what the remedy should be, and the judge said he didn't know, but "it's not dismissal."

Barry

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Ya that list was not meant for the pre-hearing, the only thing that I thought would be worth mentioning is the dates, and I wasn't sure about the other piece, but I see now it's probably not relevant either.

I'm almost done organizing my folder of evidence...

Sent off requests for a speedy trial yesterday. Should arrive today or Friday and I'll have my receipts hopefully Saturday or Monday at the latest.

Folder looks slick, I used dividers and put everything in plastic sheets, looks pretty professional at least and should prevent panicking not being able to find stuff when I need it.

Received Certified Mail confirmations... At least USPS is doing their job, overnight to the location, and overnight responses.

Well things didn't go quite as well as I had hoped today... I had just assumed I would get the option for a deferral or to contest and then get a date and be on my way

Well that did happen... After waiting about an hour and a half for my name to be called when I was called up he had asked my name and info... Then he pulled out the motion for a speedy hearing which I had filed. He had said that it was the 45th day and thus the hearing was a speedy hearing and proceeded to give me a court date. I responded that that's not true, it is the 48th day from the notice of infraction, today is the 21st, that's 48 days. He said if I disagree with his decision I can always appeal his decision then immediately went back to putting down the court date. I took the court date he assigned to me and left... It caught me off guard I didn't expect him to bring it up then for him to completely disregard it. I plan on bringing a calendar with the dates marked off to the real hearing :wallbang:.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9031/calendara.jpg
Ok just whipped this up if he can't figure out the dates from this on the real hearing, we need to rethink who we let in to the Judge's seat.

Gah I can't believe I didn't even have a response when he said that it was on the 45th day I was just dumbfounded and then he just said it was a speedy hearing and just moved on bah... I was kicking myself the whole way driving home, thinking in my head, "Notice of infraction was March 4th... 31 days in March... 31 - 4 is 27. Today is the 21st of April. 27 + 21 is 48!!!"

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Also when they asked if I had any motions for the hearing I just said I did not have any at this time. He said that was fine and that I have I think he said 14 days before the hearing to file any...

Quote:

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Quoting mixed.results

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He said if I disagree with his decision I can always appeal his decision ....

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You only need to worry about that if you lose. I still think you've got a good case -- and, as I mentioned, that judge shouldn't even have considered your motion, as there was no prosecutor there to argue it.

Try not to get too upset -- just remember: they can't all be gems. Some judges are good, some aren't; some know the law, some don't; some care about fairness, some are just in it for the money.

Besides, now you've got more ammunition -- a judge made an error in your case.

Oh, you need to contact the clerk and see if there is a record of those proceedings. It's usually a recording on a CD. If they have it, order a copy -- it may cost between $20 and $40, but you need a record of this judge saying that it's only 45 days when it's really 48, if you end up appealling.

Barry