I had what I felt was a wrongful ticket

[KCrockaholic]

So I've never had a ticket in my entire life. I understand it happens. I drive home somewhat late every Wednesday because the boys and I do a podcast that night every single Wednesday for the past 2 years. Therefore I understand I'm more of a target on the road being that there's less traffic, and that's fine.

I was leaving Quik Trip in Lenexa, and getting onto a highway to head west towards my house. I was shortly afterwards pulled over by Lenexa PD (In training) to cite me for an illegal wide turn. I have driven the same way since I was 16 years old. Never once had an issue with the way I turned. Anyways they pulled me over and accused me of also not using my turn signal which also added to my "illegal lane change". I've been furious and I requested the video evidence which I paid $35 for. Of course the evidence shows nothing of the actual violation that they sent me. Only the actual stop of my vehicle. I also noticed on my police report they wrote down my wrong address and as well as the wrong date of the stop. The said June 7th instead of July. I don't know if those things matter or not.

So anyways my question is, as I believe this is a bogus claim by these officers, what's the best options to win on this ticket? Those of you with experience I'm curious of your thoughts. The video here really makes no difference but I'm posting it here anyways. And it's extremely boring past the stopping point.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by threebag02

They will have to prove the infraction happened on the day they wrote. Fight it

Cop dash cam with the date on screen.

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Tried that once, after a road pirate hit me with a running the stop sign ticket. (I did run the sign, full disclosure). But he was parked way down at the bottom of a hill in a school, and he had no line of sight form where he was. I took photos and went in to court (he was there obv)

Judge looked at the pics and said “He could see you. Request denied”. So that’s what yours will likely say

So you ran the stop sign, and you think he just "made up" the exact charge that you were guilty of? I'll need to see the photos.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by wazu

So you ran the stop sign, and you think he just "made up" the exact charge that you were guilty of? I'll need to see the photos.

Plot twist, cosmo was the cop.

[Graystoke]

Originally Posted by Bearcat

Plot twist, cosmo was the cop.

And to think I used to watch soap operas.
This is much better.

[jettio]

Most cities on the Kansas side will give you the same deal to amend change to non-moving violation if you are represented by lawyer or not.

The fine would be higher, but it will not be on driving record and your insurance will not be affected.

You could contact clerk and ask if prosecutor is willing to discuss tickets with unrepresented person before court by email or phone.

If yes, and they give you email address, send video and say that you think you were stopped because of the training. If prosecutor does not dismiss, probably better to do amendment.

If you want the satisfaction of a trial, you should check to see if you could appeal a traffic conviction to district court. If yes, you could see if judge will rule in your favor and if guilty file appeal and then amend it before actually going through with trial at district court. If you do have a trial, make sure you know that prosecutor leads off and has burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. You should decline to ask any questions of the police officer witnesses except you could ask if this was training. Rely on you being a witness to say what you observed. Don't tangle with their witnesses.

If you do contact prosecutor, you could ask if amendment would still be available if you have trial and lose and then appeal. Say you really are not trying to cause a hassle but you really think the only reason you were stopped was for training.

You might end up wishing you just amended it in the first place. Just make sure you are trying to be calm and respectful when dealing with anybody.

I think judge would allow them to amend the ticket to correct the date.

[thebrad84]

Since the dash cam footage doesn't show a single traffic violation, I assume the violation the officer stopped you for was prior to him/her activating the dash cam (which was triggered from activating the lights). If this is the case, then the officer neglected to activate the system during the observed violation, which they could and should have done. Had the officer triggered the dash cam recording at the time of the observed violation, it would include 30 seconds worth of video prior to activation, so it should record the violation you were stopped for. Now that being said, not every single violation observed by LE is captured by their dash cam system due to it only recording what occurs in front of the patrol vehicle, so perhaps that is the case here, but the officer still should have activated the system during the observed infraction (regardless of whether or not it actually recorded it). There are multiple reasons for this, but the primary one for your situation would be to record their positioning/vantage point during the observed violation to show why they weren't able to record the violation.

I'd say coupled with the fact they put the wrong date on the citation, which is definitely important, you should have a very strong case to having your citation thrown out or if taken to trial, found not guilty. You should request a pre-trial meeting with the prosecutor and hopefully, after bringing these things up, the prosecutor will just drop the citation.

[Prison Bitch]

Originally Posted by wazu

So you ran the stop sign, and you think he just "made up" the exact charge that you were guilty of? I'll need to see the photos.

The fact I was guilty doesn’t matter. What does: the state’s burden of proof. Citizens should dispute any charge brought against them regardless of guilt, it’s a social duty in fact.

[Bwana]

I'm one for two on going to court for driving infractions over the years. The one I lost, I had zero chance with that judge. I was guilty in his eyes before it even started. I'm also 1/1 with the Fish and Game. The Fun And Games guy wrote us tickets for duck hunting after legal quieting time. When we showed up in court, I asked "did you actually see us shoot, or did you hear shots and assume it was us?" He didn't see us, so it was thrown out on the spot.

The last ticket I had that went on my record was 30 years ago, not that I haven't been pulled over, but I have been able to bullshit my way out of them. As far as your case, I would run down the DA and go have a chat.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by cosmo20002

The fact I was guilty doesn’t matter. What does: the state’s burden of proof. Citizens should dispute any charge brought against them regardless of guilt, it’s a social duty in fact.

So you think murder rape robbery drug sex trafficking is ok as long as they can't prove it?

[wazu]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

The fact I was guilty doesn’t matter. What does: the state’s burden of proof. Citizens should dispute any charge brought against them regardless of guilt, it’s a social duty in fact.

The fact that you are guilty means he probably did in fact have line of sight/visual proof. Much less plausible that he just made the whole thing up and it just happened to be true. Thanks for doing your social duty, though.

[Jewish Rabbi]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Tried that once, after a road pirate hit me with a running the stop sign ticket. (I did run the sign, full disclosure). But he was parked way down at the bottom of a hill in a school, and he had no line of sight form where he was. I took photos and went in to court (he was there obv)

Judge looked at the pics and said “He could see you. Request denied”. So that’s what yours will likely say

Jews - 1.

PB - 0.

[MarkDavis'Haircut]

Build a Killdozer and seek your revenge.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by Jewish Rabbi

Jews - 1.

cosmo20002 - 0.

fyp

[ReynardMuldrake]

Originally Posted by jettio

I think judge would allow them to amend the ticket to correct the date.

This is not true in my experience. My judge threw out the ticket and chewed out the trooper who had issued the citation with the wrong date. This happened in the Olathe courthouse.

The funny part is, I didn't even notice the date was wrong when I showed up to court. I didn't have to say a word.

[KCrockaholic]

Yeah my address on the ticket is incorrect and in their police report the date is incorrect. I’m hoping the cop just doesn’t show up on the court date. But he was in training so he might show up just because he’s new and wanting to go by the book on things. I don’t know if there’s a way to request the prior 30-45 seconds of my footage. Cause I was about half a mile down the road from what they said I did.

These guys really just had nothing better to do and leaving Quik Trip out at 1am makes me a target. I’ve been going home that time of night every Wednesday for the past couple years so I’m not surprised. I just know that the ticket he gave me is full of shit.