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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2018
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    Exclamation Ticketed for Speeding After Running a Red Light

    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Washington within Clark County. In the officer's report of the incident (linked below with the complete discovery) he starts off by saying that he saw me run a red light, but did not write me up for such. Instead he ticketed me and claimed to have paced me going 100mph. There was zero chance I was going this fast. He then lowered the ticketed speed to 80. I have contested the ticket and am scheduled to go to court on Wednesday December 5th. I think my main defenses are as follows.

    • The officer failed to cite what patrol car he was driving.
    • He fails to state that he calibrated his radar prior to the shift.
    • The officer failed to cite when the vehicle's speedometer was last calibrated.

    Should I contact the Clark County Sherrif's office and pick up when the speedometer was last calibrated? I understand he states that he states to have been trained in pacing, that should be irrelevant if his basis for speed is invalid. Speeding up to highway speeds from the street say ~70mph max shouldn't trigger someone to write up a ticket for 100mph, he definitely juiced that number. He likely believed that I had ran a red light and that convinced him to pull me over, I can assure you, I had stopped for all red lights. Please let me know if any of this seems viable! Again, court is in less than 6 days.

    All of the discovery is included below, any advice is greatly appreciated!
    https://imgur.com/a/1N1CIq3

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
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    4,301

    Default Re: Red Light Running Accusation Turns to Speeding Accusation?

    What is your evidence for your statement that "there was zero chance I was going that fast"?

    •Unless they have patrol cars without calibrated speedos I don't see that it matters that he didn't mention which car he was driving. But you can give it a try as a defense.

    •I don't see that the ticket you based on a radar so the lack of calibration of the radar doesn't matter.

    •He did say it was regularly checked.

    He didn't ticket you for the 100 mph or the red light.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2018
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    2

    Default Re: Red Light Running Accusation Turns to Speeding Accusation?

    I have no evidence, rather I'd like anybody reading to have faith in my word. This post is just to open up the conversation, I understand the courts won't accept that, and I have zero intention of making such a statement in court. I do however, plan to cast doubt upon the court for the claimed speed of 100 mph. If there is a chance the officer's pacing was inaccurate due to speedometer/radar readings, that is enough to have the ticket dismissed. My response to your three points are as follows respectively.

    A lot of patrol cars speedometers are out of calibration, specifically when a certain amount of time has passed, or the car has been driven a certain amount of miles.

    He claims that his pacing measurement of my vehicle from his speedometer is checked for accuracy using his radar.

    If his radar was not calibrated prior to the shift as well as when he last routinely checked the speedometer's calibration then both are out of calibration.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
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    8,006

    Default Re: Red Light Running Accusation Turns to Speeding Accusation?

    Your main argument should be the lack of identification of his patrol car. That means you can't check to see if the speedo was calibrated.

    The WA experts may be along after a while to give you more guidance on how to word it but that's your main attack.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
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    Default Re: Red Light Running Accusation Turns to Speeding Accusation?

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    I think my main defenses are as follows.

    • The officer failed to cite what patrol car he was driving.
    • He fails to state that he calibrated his radar prior to the shift.
    • The officer failed to cite when the vehicle's speedometer was last calibrated.
    It makes no difference what patrol car he was driving and, since he determined your speed by pacing, any calibration issues relating to the radar are irrelevant. As for the speedometer, the report says the "vehicle's certified digital speedometer . . . is routinely checked for accuracy." Unless you have evidence to the contrary, that's more than good enough.

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    Should I contact the Clark County Sherrif's office and pick up when the speedometer was last calibrated?
    I have no opinion about how you should spend your spare time.

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    Speeding up to highway speeds from the street say ~70mph max shouldn't trigger someone to write up a ticket for 100mph
    Huh?

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    he definitely juiced that number.
    What evidence do you have of that? Moreover, since you were cited for doing 80 (in a 60 zone) -- something you haven't denied -- what difference does it make that you weren't doing 100?

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    He likely believed that I had ran a red light and that convinced him to pull me over, I can assure you, I had stopped for all red lights.
    Your speculation about what the officer believed is irrelevant. Whether you did or didn't stop for a red light is irrelevant since you weren't cited for that.

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    Please let me know if any of this seems viable!
    Precisely none of it seems viable.

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    I have no evidence, rather I'd like anybody reading to have faith in my word.
    I have no more or less faith in your word than in a sworn statement of a police officer. He claims you were doing 80, and you haven't denied that and admit that you "have no evidence," so that tells me you're guilty, and that's pretty much the end of the discussion.

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    A lot of patrol cars speedometers are out of calibration, specifically when a certain amount of time has passed, or the car has been driven a certain amount of miles.
    First of all, I'm going to remind you of the first four words of your post: "I have no evidence." I must therefore assume you have no basis in fact for this statement that "[a] lot of patrol cars['] speedometers are out of calibration." For what it's worth, I drive a 12 year old car with well over 200k miles on it. I've never had the speedometer calibrated, and yet the speed shown on my speedometer is no more than 1-2mph different from what my phone's GPS shows. Maybe the speedometer on this particular car was 1-2mph off. Given that you were paced doing 80 in a 60 zone, what difference would 1-2mph make?

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    He claims that his pacing measurement of my vehicle from his speedometer is checked for accuracy using his radar.
    That's plainly not true. You realize we can read the statement you linked, right? What he wrote was that the "vehicle's certified digital speedometer . . . is routinely checked for accuracy using radar unit #R2563.

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    If his radar was not calibrated prior to the shift as well as when he last routinely checked the speedometer's calibration then both are out of calibration.
    Wrong. The might, in theory, be out of calibration. But do you really think they might be 20mph out of calibration? That's beyond absurd.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    193

    Default Re: Red Light Running Accusation Turns to Speeding Accusation?

    In WA for traffic tickets the standard for conviction is preponerance of evidence, not reasonable doubt so casting doubt is not enough. Your only real hope is to argue the lack of identifying the patrol car for speedometer calibration purpose is sufficient to suppress the speedometer reading. As others have mentioned, this argument may not fly but it is worth a shot. Just expect to lose anyway.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    1,383

    Default Re: Red Light Running Accusation Turns to Speeding Accusation?

    Before any electronic or mechanical device is used to prove something, in this case the speed of a vehicle, there must be a foundation laid before the evidence can be considered by the court. IRLJ 6.6 allows evidence regarding a speed measuring device (such as that of a speedometer) to be presented by way of affidavit rather than in-person testimony by an expert. Thus, essentially bypassing the procedural requirements of what would be a requisite foundation.

    The fact that the officer fails to identify his patrol vehicle is damning to his own case. Without a way of identifying the vehicle, there's no way of determining if expert testimony exists to the accuracy of the device. The officer has not qualified as an expert on the speedometer, and as such cannot stand in lieu of an expert, who would normally testify with an IRLJ 6.6 cert. Therefore, any readings taken by the SMD (read: speedometer) should be suppressed for lack of foundation and the case should be dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

    This is a moderately technical argument. It may be wise to hire an attorney. However, I would be appalled if an attorney couldn't get this case dismissed.

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