My question involves traffic court in the State of: CA
Hello all,
A few months ago I was cited for turning left on a red arrow as well as having an unrestrained passenger. I accept the second charge but as for the left arrow violation... I am pretty sure the arrow was broken.
The Night of the Citation
I had several passengers with me that night, and no one recalled me running a red light. Obviously they weren't paying as much attention as I was to driving, but still. I thought it very weird and the next night I went to the intersection to find that the red arrow light I ran was actually broken! I took photos of the broken red arrow as well as the green light working properly. However, this doesn't definitively prove that the light was also broken the previous night.
My TBD Statement
I attached these photos (http://i.imgur.com/2FlEC.jpg)to my TBD along with the following statement:
Found GuiltyYour honor, I stand by my plea of NOT GUILTY. I believe that the particular light that tells the driver when it is permissable to make a left turn at the intersection of REDACTED and REDACTED street was not functional at the time of my citation. I have attached three photos of the intersection I took the night after my citation of the light in question. You can see that the red left turn arrow signal is broken. It looks like there is no left turn arrow signal, especially at night which was when I was cited. I have also attached a screenshot of the intersection in question from Google Maps to verify that my photos are of the same intersection and left turn signal.
Your Honor, I have never been cited for a moving violation. I believe I am a good and careful driver and I definitely would not brazenly run a red light at a busy intersection at a time where I knew police officers were out in large numbers. I am not familiar with the area or the streets and the fact that the nearly all the other intersections I had turned left in before I was cited were "left turn yield at green light" intersections combined with the malfunctioning red light made me believe that I was supposed to turn left at the intersection after yielding to oncoming traffic from the opposite direction.
However, I screwed up and turned in the TBD a day late. They still accepted it along with my bail payment, but a few weeks later I received a notice saying I was found guilty. I'm not sure if they found me guilty automatically for turning in the statement late or if the judge simply didn't buy my argument.
TDN and Officer's statements
Nevertheless, I requested a TDN along with a copy of the officer's written statements. I eventually received these in the mail:
http://imgur.com/a/K3Znl
(Note: Notice in image three at the top: They had someone else's name under "Defendant's Name" while still getting the case #, citation #, violations, date, time, and place correct. Can this error help me at all? The rest of the pages correctly put my name under the Defendant's Name)
My Questions
- Am I screwed as far as getting traffic school goes for requesting a TDN?
- How should I go about defending myself at the TDN? I have photos of a broken red arrow but they're from the night after... In fact, how would I even prove I took them the night after???
- While the primary red arrow signal was out, the secondary red arrow way in the left corner was still functioning. Does that completely kill my defense? I seriously thought it was an intersection where I could turn left after yielding to all incoming traffic. I didn't see a red arrow where it normally would have been and assumed I could have just turned left. Is that a usable defense at all?
Thank you very much for reading! My trial is this Friday but I will be going in tomorrow (Wednesday) morning to request an extension to hopefully buy more time.
Obviously the officer not showing up at all at the trial would be optimal but based off of how thorough he was with the TBD, I don't like my chances as far as that goes.

