Hey everybody......I really need advice on a ticket that, in my humble opinion, is just plain stupid. Half an hour ago, I was pulled over by a copper in Ann Arbor, MI. I was driving home from class (its snowing here right now!) on a street that is perpendicular to the street I live on. Now traffic was backed up at least 100 yards, and an empty supermarket parking lot was the only thing between me and home. So I turned into this parking lot and drove to my apartment. Now a cop was sitting in the empty lot and followed me home and wrote me a ticket in the driveway.
In the description, he writes "Use of Private Property As Cut Thru" and under the Michigan offense code 257.611 it says "The driver of a vehicle shall not, for the purpose of avoiding obedience to a traffic control device placed in accordance with this chapter, drive upon or through private property, or upon or through public property which is not a street or highway."
I'm wondering if there is any way I can argue my way out of this $200 ticket. In Ann Arbor, we can disagree with the issuance of the citation and appear in court for no additional fee (which is exactly what i really want to do since im a poor grad student - 200 bucks is pretty much food money for a month). Now, I just think this ticket is absolutely ludicrous! I went through a supermarket PARKING LOT! How is this a crime? It is abandoned, but no signs are posted anywhere that say "Do not enter" etc. If it is private property and i'm "trespassing", is the cop allowed to be sitting in the lot in the first place? Can I argue that because its a parking lot, its a public throughway? Or can I say that because traffic was so backed up, in my best estimate the light was not working and therefore i was not trying to avoid the traffic control device? PLEASE HELP ME! Like I said earlier, I'm a grad student at U of M and we hardly get paid anything in the first place. The last thing I need to pay for is a ticket for using a short cut. Thanks!
-Paul

