My question involves traffic court in the State of: CA
When autoloading my monthly pass for Caltrain, Clipper deducted cash fare from my card but did not refund this money when I tagged off. This left me with a negative balance. 7 days later, they charged me for a monthly pass, because my payment information had finally cleared their system. When I tried to use the card, it was cited as being invalid. The following day, I received an e-mail from Clipper stating that my card was valid, and all I would need to do was tag on and off (this was untrue).
The citation I received on the train did not contain any infraction circled. 10 days later, I received a "correction" in the mail, signed by a person who I've never met who wasn't on the train that day.
I don't see how I can be charged with "fare evasion," when I paid for a monthly pass 5 days before. I guess you could argue that I received a slight "discount" on that first ride because my Clipper cash balance went negative, but since I was signed up for autoloading monthly pass at that time, I think my money should have been refunded. In fact, the fare for this first trip was refunded later by Clipper, but only after the citation. If they'd refunded the money before, I wouldn't have received the citation and my clipper card would've been valid.
How should I argue this in court?

