My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Indiana.

Hello,

Thanks for your consideration in reading my question.

I received a ticket for failing to signal a turn (and a second for littering which is another issue entirely) under local ordinance the last 4th of July weekend. This much is true, I did indeed fail to signal a turn.

However, I was trying to locate an establishment (a pool haul and bar) to which I had never been and was unsure of its location. I was on a poorly-lit road with no other traffic than myself, the officer, and a friend with whom I was out (who was driving on his own behind the officer). Furthermore, there were two bars in the immediate vicinity.

To make a long story short, the officer pulled out behind me after I turned onto this road and began to tailgate me. I became afraid for my safety, being unaware the person behind me was a police officer -- considering his vehicular conduct, I was certain he was a drunk driver -- and turned into the nearest parking lot to get away from this driver and get directions from my friend. As soon as I did, he turned on his lights and siren.

One very poor stop later -- the officer was unclear whether I had committed an infraction, or whether my vehicular conduct constituted probable cause for an OWI pullover, became extremely antagonistic after I asserted my rights and asked for a clear explanation of why I had been pulled over, claimed I threw a cigarette butt at him (when I'd actually dropped it trying to hand over my information) and wouldn't let me get out of the car to pick it up, among other things -- I was the owner of brand-new tickets for failing to signal a turn and littering.

I personally feel I was entrapped, or at least placed under duress by the officer. My record is clean save one speeding violation six years ago; I always signal my turns and had absolutely no intent nor willingness to not signal turns that evening. It was the 4th of July weekend, I was about to take no chances; in fact, I was going to the bar to play a round of pool and DD for my friend. Simply put, were it not for the officer's presence and actions, I would have not committed the infraction.

My friend, as I said, was behind the officer in his own vehicle and witnessed the entire incident, and is willing to give testimony regarding the officer's vehicular conduct. According to him, the officer was approximately ten feet from my rear bumper while I was driving 20 (and the officer cut him off when pulling behind me), which is not even a single car length let alone a safe following distance.

Also, the court appearance listed on my ticket was a Sunday evening. I made a good faith attempt to appear Sunday evening (court was obviously closed) and I have people who can corroborate this story. I called the clerk's office and arranged a pretrial conference, which I attended to find out that municipal traffic court is held the first Wednesday of every month and I was marked as having failed to appear. As far as I know, no bench warrant was issued nor further corrective action taken. This strikes me as very odd -- having been given a Sunday evening court appearance date and then marked as having failed to appear two business days (four actual days) before my listed appearance date.

My questions are thus: do I have a chance of successfully fighting the ticket through an entrapment claim, and what alternate venues might I have?