Author Topic: <sigh> Not my month... (Read 693 times)

texace · « **on:** November 06, 2002, 09:10:45 PM »

Got my first ticket last night...over something menial. I was coming home from work at 10:30 or so, and when I'm coming home, a cop hits his lights behind me. Told me a ran a stop sign (which I didn't...I stopped completely at the intersection the cop WAS IN...and he followed me for at least 300 yards or more until he decided to flip his lights. Last few times I've seen stop sign violations...they stop them right there...not 300 yards down the road...)

Anyways...checks my lisence and asks where my glasses are (I have...or rather HAD an A restriction. In Texas, that means "with corrective lenses). I tell him that I wear contacts, and he asks to see them. I haven't worn my contacts in nine months, as my vision is close to 20/20 without em, but I show him anyways. He then accuses me of lying about them, as he gets real uppity and upset, so I admit that I do not have contacts.

He goes to his car and I wait...he then comes back to tell me he's giving me a "warning" for a sign I didn't run, and a ticket (!!!!!) for not wearing lenses I do not need. Since the resriction was on the lisence, I could not tell the officer I didn't need the lenses, or I'd get hit again for lying. Anyway...I call the courthouse to see the fine...

$130.00!!!!

I am going to try and get this dismissed, but I don't know. I've lost my mind, as my car failed inspection and it's a week past the date. I've got no money to get it fixed...

I might be away from AH for a while...but I hope not. I'm just real upset right now and I had to vent. I know a few of you here are worse off than I am...but I needed to vent cause no one is home right now...

Semp out...

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #1 on:** November 06, 2002, 09:19:52 PM »

Only way I can see out would be to get your eyes checked again, and have a medical report from the optitrician(or however the hell it's spelled) that you have good vision... good enuff to operate a vehicle without corrective lenses.

Of course, that too costs money unless, perhaps, you are employed by someone with good medical insurance...

Other than that, I dunno... you can go in and try to BS the judge...
-SW

Nash · « **Reply #2 on:** November 06, 2002, 09:36:58 PM »

Bummer tex.

"I tell him that I wear contacts, and he asks to see them. I haven't worn my contacts in nine months... so I admit that I do not have contacts."

Reminded me of something that happened to one of my Dad's friends...

He was pulled over by a cop. He asked why he was being pulled over, and the cop says "because you're not wearing your seatbelt" (the law here).

The guy says "Oh, I was indeed wearing my seatbelt, but I took it off when you pulled me over in order to reach over to the glovebox to get you my registration papers".

The cop says, "Oh really? Put your seatbelt back on".

The guy goes "Sure" and attempts to put his seatbelt back on. He can't.

That's when he realizises the the seatbelt was caught in the door and the buckle was dragging along the ground.

ra · « **Reply #3 on:** November 06, 2002, 10:13:19 PM »

Damn, I get so many tickets I'd forgotten how bad the first one felt.

I figure I've paid for a squad car by now, and a new coffee room at my auto insurance company.

Yesterday I commuted 67.5 miles in less than an hour, and that includes about 6 stop lights.

It sucks when it's a bogus ticket from a salamander cop, like yours. Make up for it by speeding vigorously for the rest of your life.

ra

J_A_B · « **Reply #4 on:** November 06, 2002, 10:30:14 PM »

Lying to an officer, even about something "unimportant", isn't a smart thing to do and is a good way to talk yourself into a fine because that suggests you KNOW the rule and willfully disregarded it. Furthermore since you tried to lie about your non-existant contacts, few judges would take your word vs. the officer's about whether you made a full stop or not so you probably did good in that you only got 1 citation.

It's an expensive lesson.

Ra--

With your attitude it's no surprise that you get lots of tickets. Sooner or later you'll lose your license (of course you'll blame the police for that too).

J_A_B

texace · « **Reply #5 on:** November 06, 2002, 10:52:50 PM »

No no J_A_B, I did not lie about my contacts...I told him truthfully that I was not wearing them. He asked me, and I told him truthfully.

I am smart enough to know not to lie to a police officer...if I had, then the fine would have been worse.

He thought I was lying about them becuause I told him I had them...not that I had them IN. My contacts have been out of date for that nine months. Being of teenager mind...I decided that I would wait until my birthday and get the restriction removed...and I didn't make it. It was far safer to drive without glasses or contacts as they made my vision worse.

davidpt40 · « **Reply #6 on:** November 07, 2002, 03:05:31 AM »

Take it to court. You have BETTER than a 50% chance of not paying a dime if you go to court. Don't take my word on it, check out what studies have found. Its your moral obligation as a citizen to fight this ticket in court.

It may be an inconvience now, but when you look back in 10 years, you will be able to say "I'm sure glad I exercised my rights and didnt pay for that ticket (and all the other crap that goes along with getting a ticket)"

Animal · « **Reply #7 on:** November 07, 2002, 03:47:24 AM »

How did you show him your contacts if you were not wearing them?

Anyways you are extremely lucky when it comes to cops if you are pissed about this, trust me. If you see Dave Chapelle's stand up act you may undestand why

I would never dare to contradict a cop. All that is coming out of my mouth is "yes sir" "no sir" and hoping that my nads are left intact.

Apache · « **Reply #8 on:** November 07, 2002, 07:06:38 AM »

You're going about it the wrong way. Go back to the "running of the stop sign". You say you didn't. If you can prove it or convince a judge/jury that you didn't, then the officer had no "probable cause", therefore, the glasses thing will be thrown out. Fruit of the poison tree, IIRC.

Otherwise, you're screwed. You're license states a restriction, which you were not complying with. It's your responsibility to prove to the DMV you no longer need a restriction. You're fine may be reduced, but I would be willing to bet the points (if there were any points hit) won't be.

bounder · « **Reply #9 on:** November 07, 2002, 07:34:20 AM »

"bad cop! no donut!"

funkedup · « **Reply #10 on:** November 07, 2002, 06:56:33 PM »

Don't lie to cops unless you have a good reason or you have some time to kill and you like being around cops. They deal with all kinds of people and they get to be pretty good lie detectors. Once they know you are lying to them they are wondering why, and if something more is going on than whatever they pulled you over for. And they will try to find out what that is. Which will cost you time (if you are innocent) or your freedom (if you are guilty).

If you had told him that you didn't have corrective lenses on and that it was because you didn't need them anymore, he would have thought twice about writing a ticket for it, because if there's one thing they hate, it's going to court for a ticket and losing. But once you lie to them they tend to nail you for anything they can.

What you need to do is see an eye doctor and get cleared to drive without lenses. If you can document that then you will be able to get the judge to toss out the citation. If you can't document that, then you are guilty is charged.

SC-Sp00k · « **Reply #11 on:** November 07, 2002, 08:07:36 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by funkedup
Don't lie to cops unless you have a good reason or you have some time to kill and you like being around cops. They deal with all kinds of people and they get to be pretty good lie detectors. Once they know you are lying to them they are wondering why, and if something more is going on than whatever they pulled you over for. And they will try to find out what that is. Which will cost you time (if you are innocent) or your freedom (if you are guilty).

If you had told him that you didn't have corrective lenses on and that it was because you didn't need them anymore, he would have thought twice about writing a ticket for it, because if there's one thing they hate, it's going to court for a ticket and losing.

What you need to do is see an eye doctor and get cleared to drive without lenses. If you can document that then you will be able to get the judge to toss out the citation. If you can't document that, then you are guilty is charged.

What funked says makes sense. You may have to pay court costs which are minor to the Traffic notice. Go see the doc.

mrfish · « **Reply #12 on:** November 07, 2002, 09:01:05 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by funkedup
Don't lie to cops unless you have a good reason or you have some time to kill and you like being around cops.

yep

capt. apathy · « **Reply #13 on:** November 07, 2002, 09:12:46 PM »

unless you have a witness you can't prove you didn't run the stop sign. if you bring it up it will just make you look like you're the kind of guy who try's to weasle out of everything. take the warning and drop it.

as far as the glasses, just go to the eye dr. and get them checked. if you are within limits without them the judge will probably drop the whole thing or at least reduce most of it. if not you're guilty, stop whinning and pay the fine.

Reschke · « **Reply #14 on:** November 07, 2002, 09:24:07 PM »

This sort of reminds me of the time in college when several of my buddies and I pulled a sneak in on the girls college down the road a couple of miles.

We had an FTX going on that none of us soon to be graduated junior college guys needed to be on and we decided to pull our own Undercover Fornication Training Exercise (henceforth known as UFTX). So I put 5 or 6 guys in the hatch back of my CRX and we had probably 20-30 guys with girl friends who were locked up in there curfew enforced dorms on this weeknight when all the military college boys were days away from graduation.

Well to make this one short we decided to infiltrate from the graveyard about 300 meters away from the fence around the girls college campus. The drive-in gates were locked with security guards on them and of course they had the motion detector lights on the fence also.

Well as we are tactically crossing the road one of the guys gets caught by a cop car on patrol. (Keep in mind that we are all in full camo only with no face paint since that is not to attractive even to girlfriends.) This guy is the one that was carrying on of the several rappeling lines we were thinking that would be needed for the guys who were visiting girlfriends whose dorm rooms were on the 3rd floor or higher. He just froze like a damn manequin in the middle of the road and the cop pulls up and starts reading the guy his rights. He has no idea that just a few feet away are the rest of us trying not to laugh our collective tulips off.

So the rest of the infil for our "FTX" goes according to plan and the vast majority of us who were able to make it into dorms are attempting to exfil before daylight. At this point three other guys gets seen trying to exfil about 50 meters from a gate. They start running towards me and three of my riders as we are crossing the fence and headed toward the cars. At this point three cop cars come screaming into the area of the graveyard with lights and sirens flashing. Well me being the handsomehunk I was with the LOCAL car (wait I did not mention that I knew every damn cop in town since I lived there and the son of the police chief and I were good friends and I went to his house for dinner several times a month.). Well anyway me being a handsomehunk decides to try and make a run for it. We successfully get out of the graveyard and start heading back to school. I have to drive right down the main road into the school to let the other guys out so I can go home.

About this time we get pulled over by none other than the police chief. Imagine trying to lie to him about having truly been on the real FTX when he tells me that he saw me and my car drive out of the graveyard. Fortunately my Dad was in Saudi at the time and he only heard of this little stunt several months later when I had left to go to UAB for football.

So my advice is don't lie to the cops they really know the true score on 98% of the things that happen.