Contesting a Speeding Ticket in Washington State

[pphilip]

My question involves a speeding ticket from the State of: WA

I received a speeding ticket a few days ago. The officer claims I was traveling at 44 mph in a 30 mph zone. I do not know if I was or not. The officer marked SMD on the ticket, but did not write a seriel number. Can I request this information and request to see when the device was last calibrated or certified? I've also heard I should request to know when the officer was last trained on the device. Do you recommend this?

I was especially shocked that the officer was able to track my speed because his lights went on before I passed him. He was parked on the side of the road and I was coming around a slight bend in the road. Can an SMD accurately calculate my speed in this way?

I was considering requesting a deferment, but can I request mitigation or should I contest it? If I contest and fail, can I still request deferment? Or do I have to choose the route I want to go before I begin?

Finally, I read that the officer is required to submit a sworn statement to the court within 5 days, and if he/she doesn't, the infraction must be thrown out. t I don't know how to confirm if this is true.

Thanks for your help.

[blewis]

The answers to most of your questions (along with a few you haven't asked yet) can be found in this thread. Read it, and if you still have questions, come back and ask.

Barry

[pphilip]

Hi Barry,
Thank you for referring me to your very detailed and helpful informational thread! I will go to court next Tuesday and I haven't received discovery yet. I submitted the discovery letter on Feb 8 in person at the courthouse. I don't know if the 14 days includes weekends or not, so I hope I didn't screw that up...If I don't receive discovery, I plan to move for suppression of the sworn statement, but I'm worried about a couple of things.

1) Does the court care if something gets lost in the mail? That is, if discovery was sent to me and they have a record of mailing it out but I never recieve it, do I have any case for complaint? Is there any expectation that I should go to the court to pick up the documents? I asked the clerk if it would be mailed to me, and she said yes, but she did not say that this was the approved/established method of communication.

2) My second question is whether the electronic infraction I was given does sometimes serve as the officer's sworn statement in the state of WA? When I called the courthouse a month back to find out if a sworn statement had been submitted, the clerk told me that it was done automatically by computer by the officer from his car at the moment he issued the ticket. I have a copy of that paper that he printed, but it does not have any description of the incident...only SMD is checked and a short comment stating "speeding 14mph over limit(40 or U". Under the "I certify under penalty or perjury..." part it states "I am entering my authorized userID and password to authenticate it". Have you seen a ticket like this, and does it stand in for a sworn statement?

Thanks for any last minute advice you can give!

[pphilip]

Case dismissed! I'm very pleased and I couldn't have done it without the information provided in these forums. I can't thank you enough.

I moved for supression of the officer's sworn statement persuant to IRLJ 3.1 (b). I did not receive discovery from the prosectution. The motion was granted, so I moved for dismissal for lack of evidence and this was granted as well.

The judge seemed mildly impressed with my obvious virginity to this kind of thing.

[blewis]

Well, congratulations! Excellent job! Sorry I didn't see your previous post -- I was in Cabo (sunshine and 85 degrees), but it looks like you handled it perfectly.

Way to go,
Barry