No Turn Ticket on Grand Street, Chinatown, New York

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: NY
Disobeying a "No Right Turn" Sign.
So i I got a ticket for making a right on grand street onto bowery. There are so many people who got this ticket that it is ridiculous. I went to work on that same day and my coworker said her dad also got a ticket for making a right on grand onto bowery. A no turn sign is ridiculous on that block because it's there just to get the citizens money. It serves no purpose whatsoever and the sign is so new that most people would not know it is there. If you listen to my story you might laugh out loud. So i was driving on grand street and a cop was right in front of me. He actually makes a right on grand street onto bowery. So i see him making a right and i follow him, thinking it is legal because the cop have got to know what he is doing (i don't drive in Manhattan a lot and the last time i remembered, you could make a right on grand street). As i follow him, a pedestrian walks across the street and i stop to let them walk. I see the cop pulling aside waiting for me to pass him. As i pass him, he turns on his sirens to pull me over. The first thing he asked me was, "Do you know why i am pulling you over?" So i told him no. He told me that i couldn't make a turn on grand street. So i told him, i saw you making a right so i thought it was a legal right he was making. I believe the cop purposely made that right to mislead the person behind so he could give a ticket. I do understand cops can do whatever they want like making turns on NO TURN SIGN without their sirens on. But it is misleading and confusing because the cops represents the law enforcements in this city and seeing them making those illegal turns does not justify the law. Next time i know not to trust the cops. I thought cops would follow the regulations more strictly unless there is an emergency. I guess that is not the case. Giving the cops the power is like giving the pharmacist the right to sell narcotics on the street. Should I even bother to fight this ticket? Or am I wasting my time and better off going to work and earn my money back to pay for that ticket? I guess 2 to 3 points off is nothing to me since i never committed a moving violation in my life (By the way, he didn't say if he took off any points or is it automatically taken off?). I could have those points replenished in 3 years. After all, I am arguing against the cop and a judge(hence, who works for the state). My parents once told me before that no matter who you are arguing against or how good of a lawyer you get , if you are arguing against a government worker, the judge will take sides with the government worker. Unfortunately, this is the truth and the dark side of being a government worker. Also, the economy is in a bad state. This is their way of getting money to recover from the loss.

You're free to contest the ticket and argue to the court that the officer's actions confused you.

Are you saying the you did in fact see the sign but just because the cop made the turn in front of you thought it would be OK? What would you have done if the cop would have gone straight? Would you have made that same turn?

Either way, about the points... Usually neither the officer nor the court can control how many points you get on your record if you are found guilty. If/when you are convicted of a moving violation, the court will report the conviction to the DMV and the DMV will, in turn, add whatever points that violation carries to your record.

Yeah, i saw the sign. But when i saw the cop turn, it made me think it was legal. Otherwise, i would have gone straight.

Hey. I feel your pain because I was in the same boat not long ago. You can check out my thread at http://www.expertlaw.com/forums/show...446#post322446

A lot of other people got the tickets too, and I still see lots of people making that right turn from grand st to bowery st because that "NO TURN" sign is a relatively new sign. It was definitely not there a year or two back. You were lucky because that bitch gave me 2 tickets, $240 and 5 points if I were to plead guilty. If you search for forum for threads that deals with disobeying traffic device in NYC, probably 4 out of 5 is making a left or right turn on grand st onto bowery st. It is literally a death trap.

Long story short, I plead not guilty and saw a judge a couple of months later. One ticket was dismissed but I ended up paying the other one ($120 plus 2 points). You know there are many many more people out there like you and me who made that turn because two persons that saw the judge before me got exactly the same tickets. 2 tickets, same turn, and issued by the same bitch. That's 3 people already in the same room for the same violation, not to mention that there are 10+ court rooms in that DMV building. Judges probably have seem tons of people for that violation and heard all the stories. Your chances of beating it is not looking good. The judges all work for the city now cuz the city is broke.

So you are saying that if the cop doesn't tell you that you get points off, you won't get points off?? The cop didn't tell me if he was going to take any points off. I am pleading not guilty because i am not sure. He didn't say anything about it. That's quite terrible for a cop.