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  1. #1

    Smile Dismissal of a California Speeding Ticket Based on the Officer's No-Show

    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California

    Hi, I wanted to post on this forum about my experience fighting my ticket - I won, and my story might help some people. I wrote a book (on Amazon) about how I did it but I want to share here too.

    I was cited for 22356(b) - allegedly doing 86 mph on the freeway. First thing I did was research how lidar devices work. Check out "The Lowdown On Lidar" by Josh Bloch which is very critical of the technology, particularly with regard to how law enforcement actually use it. I obtained a copy of the CHP's lidar operating training manual and a copy of the manual for a particular model of lidar device, and it was clear that, at least in my situation, the officer who cited me completely ignored CHP procedure.

    I extended the deadline to respond. Then I did a trial by written declaration. I wrote up everything I had found out and applied it to my ticket, but I still lost. :-(

    Then I did a trial de novo. I requested a new judge as the person they assigned me too initially wasn't actually a judge and happened to be the person who ruled against me in the trial by written declaration. The new judge set a court date.

    Then I requested discovery from the DA. They were not very polite. :-( Went to court, explained I requested discovery but didn't get it; the judge denied motion to dismiss but gave me a new date.

    Requested discovery from the DA again, they were not polite (again) but noted that they weren't going to be calling the officer as a witness, which I thought was a little odd. Also requested discovery from the CHP. They did provide me with a limited amount of info but they sent it the court instead of my house, presumably by mistake! I didn't know about this until the day before my trial. I immediately called them to get more info but no one called me back.

    On trial day, I arrived ready to argue that the speed measurement had been obtained without any regard for CHP procedure. The officer no-showed (not sure if the DA told him not to appear) so I won. :-)

    Hope this helps some people! :-)

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    20,594

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    Well, you did not really BEAT the ticket with any great strategy - you won because the officer did not show up.

  3. #3

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    Yes, the 'request discovery' strategy is not novel - but it can work. :-)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    20,594

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    Everyone can request discovery. But, requesting it from the DA does not always work because the DA is out of the loop in traffic matters in CA. Many will do as your DA's office did - they send a request to the agency involved to provide the defendant with discovery. Others just say they are not involved in the process. In those instances, you either have to seek compelled discovery from the court, or, you make the request from the law enforcement agency. Many agencies will comply with these requests without being compelled by the court. The CHP tends to be very cooperative.

    But, you did not prevail because of some wise discovery practice, you prevailed because the state's only witness failed to show. You will never know if your strategy and trial prep would have prevailed or not. You will never know whether or not the officer's alleged failure to follow agency procedure in some way would have translated to some sort of legal insufficiency. In most cases, the court is not going to be concerned about a policy violation so much as they are about the legal requirements. But, not knowing what policy issue you intended to raise, it's hard to opine on that aspect of your potential defense.

  5. #5

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    Yes this is true. It's true that my defense wasn't tested in court. It's also true that everyone can request discovery. BUT most people don't, which I think is a shame.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Posts
    1,131

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    That's okay, I'm sure they'll get you next time.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    California
    Posts
    20,594

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    Quote Quoting rtg20
    View Post
    Yes this is true. It's true that my defense wasn't tested in court. It's also true that everyone can request discovery. BUT most people don't, which I think is a shame.
    MOST people know they've been caught and they follow the path of least resistance. While everyone has the right to challenge their ticket, not everyone has the option to take time off of work and do the research it might take to roll the dice hoping to come up 7.

    That, and risking the insurance premium increase if they are not permitted to take traffic school after they lose.

  8. #8

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    A couple questions:
    1) How do you do trial de novo?
    2) What was your defense when you did trial by written declaration?

  9. #9

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    Quote Quoting Lizard
    View Post
    A couple questions:
    1) How do you do trial de novo?
    2) What was your defense when you did trial by written declaration?
    1. Having received notification that I lost the trial by written declaration, I filled in a form to request a TDN, and filed it with the court.

    2. All in the book; I argued that the speed measurement was wrong because in order for the speed measurement to be accurate, the beams of light emitted by the lidar speed measuring device have to hit exactly the same point on the car. Given that I was driving down a hill at the time, I don't think that the officer was supporting the lidar device (e.g. with a tripod) when he used it, and he was several hundred feet away from me when he caught me, this is actually extremely unlikely. Check out Josh Bloch's 'Lowdown on Lidar' (also cited in my book).

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Posts
    38,867

    Default Re: How I Beat My California Speeding Ticket

    I sure hope you aren't selling your book. Your "understanding" of lidar speedn
    detectors is poor at best.

    You should check out the specs on the lidar used and calculate just how large the "spot" was. The minimal error caused by not hitting the "exact point" (if you calculate the actual size of the spot you will realize how invalid your claims are) will not cause an error large enough to make a difference. You should also realize that there are several hundred, at least, measurements taken during a speed check, all in less than half a second, which allows for a very accurate measurement.

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