Fight Your Ticket and Win!

I just had this same thing happen to me. Doing the speed limit with cruise control set. RD went off with a single weak signal on a curvy mountain highway. 2 cars in front, 2 behind, a whole line of cars going the other direction. No more signal after that single initial alert. 2 turns and exactly 2 miles further down the hwy I seen the CHP vehicle at night, lights off parked on the side of the road. As I came around the turn his tail lights came on and he started pulling out, right into my lane in front of me like he didn’t even look before pulling out. I slowed and moved to the inside lane out of his way and he pulled behind me and pulled me over. As soon as I lowered my window he said “radar detector huh? I clocked you doing 91 in a 65, didn’t your detector alert you?”. I replied with it didn’t go off any where near range of you and I’ve been driving with my cruise control set at the speed limit for over 30 minutes now, there’s no way. His response was “you should send that radar detector back, clearly it doesn’t work”. Right then I knew he was only harassing me because he could clearly see the detector before pulling me over. As far as I’m concerned, this is a clear cut case of “color of law abuse”. I wasn’t breaking any laws and he didn’t even have his radar on when I was anywhere near him.

I am fighting it in court, my court date is coming up and I’m so mad about this dishonesty that it makes me sick to my stomach. I’m a subscriber to your Guide, but I don’t see where I can download this info.

This is the second time now I’ve been dishonestly harassed by police who noticed I was using a radar detector. About 6 months ago I was traveling on a city street. As I approached an intersection I noticed 2 motorcycle cops waiting for their red light, my light was green. Just as I hit that white line your supposed to stop at the light turned yellow. No way I could stop for that light, even if I locked the brakes up I would have skidded through it at just 35 MPH. As anyone who has had a close light call can probably attest, you look up at the light as you go under. It was still yellow the entire time I was under it. A close call, unavoidable running of a yellow light clearly, but not running a red light the cop who seen my radar detector ticketed me for.

I fought it in court, the prosecute first offered me 2 points and a fine as a plea bargain. A better deal than the 6 points and stiffer fine it would be. I rejected the offer, I said if I had done what I was being falsely accused of I would just pay my fine and not even be in court. I’m going before the judge for a reason, I did NOT run a red light, I’ll plead guilty to running a yellow light and thats it, running a yellow light is not illegal.

What a joke our courts are (I’ve fortunately had no previous experience with them). When court started I was told by the judge during court that the state had the “burden of proof to prove my guilt beyond any reasonable doubt”.

I just told the judge, the light turned yellow just as I was at the line you are supposed to stop at when its red, there’s no way I could have stopped for that light and it was not red till after I was all the way through the intersection any how. I always stop for even yellow lights. 42 years old and I have a perfect flawless driving record.

It amounted to the cops word against mine, no more, no less. The judge found me guilty as charged. How that substantiates to proof beyond a reasonable doubt is beyond me? The dishonest cop said I did it so that some how constituted as proof beyond a reasonable doubt. What’s the point of even having a court in the first place?

I’m still glad I fought it in court though. Had I just accepted it I would have 6 points on my license from it and a fine. Had I taken the plea bargain it would have been 2 points and a still steep fine. The judge found me guilty (of something I didn’t do all the same) but gave me a deal that if I paid $80 and took a defensive driving course it would be dropped to a parking ticket, no points and not reported to the DMV or my insurance.

So in a way I won, even though technically a dishonest cop still got away with being dishonest. I did the defensive driving course on line and actually enjoyed taking it, I learned a lot. I still feel like I’ve never been mugged by a thug on the streets, but our legal system just strong arm robbed me of $80. They claim to protect us from the criminals, who protects us from them (our legal system) robbing us? It left a taste in my mouth of preferring to take my chances against the criminals, at least with the criminals I have a chance of fighting back to defend my self and property, the legal system just acts and takes at will leaving you no real chance to fight back or defend your self against it.

My next major investment is definitely going to be a hidden remotely installed RD system as soon as I can afford one. Like locking your car doors only keeps honest people honest, but a thief will still just break your window. Having a visible radar detector only makes dishonest cops more dishonest. With a legal system in place you can’t honestly defend yourself against so long as one persons word against your own is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt” then anyone winning a traffic court case has performed a miracle.

People complain about red light cameras, I wish we had them here. The camera won’t lie, the cop will. If we had red light cameras here I would not even be telling this story. I wish we used speed cameras here as well. The alternative is nothing more than the limit of integrity of a dishonest cop. I don’t think enough people out there understand just a cop saying you did something wrong, even when you didn’t is all it takes for proof beyond any reasonable doubt needed to find you guilty of being charged for something you did not do. I’d rather have an honest camera than a dishonest cop.

I would appreciate your feedback on the following scenario:

It was approximately 7:45 p.m. on a Wednesday evening in mid-February. The weather: snow in the morning then turning to rain by noon and extremely light drizzle in the evening. The weather report states the humidity to be at 95% at 54 degrees F. I understand from the manual that the readings were only good up to 90% humidity at 37 degrees C. Roads were wet as we drove over them. The car: a very dark Shelby Mustang with curves and slopes in the rear, including the back window, the bumper, etc. It has a dark license plate cover over the license plate. The Trooper apparently hit me with LIDAR (Pro Laser III) in the back of my car from 200.8 feet away as I passed him on the highway. Where he was parked and where my vehicle was positioned on the highway, there was a significant curve so the LIDAR could not shoot straight on. The traffic was fairly heavy and there were cars to my left and to my right, all passing me. He alleges I was driving 85 on a 55. My question is this: Which do you think best applies in this situation, sweep error or cosine error. The fact that he was shooting the LIDAR out of his drivers side window and attempting to aim at a very dull surface area of my car at 200.8 feet, may contribute to sweep error. The angle at which he shot the LIDAR would contribute to cosine error. Reflective error may also be a factor since it was humid and the roads were wet at the time.

Any information you have regarding a defense against LIDAR will be appreciated.

Thanks.

Actually, the beam will be 7.2″ in diameter. But a beam being that small, slip error would definitely be a lot easier because the beam is so small, any movement, unlike when you’re at 1000″ would be more drastic and will affect the speed reading. The fact that he wasn’t using a tripod increases this effect. I was under the impression that when a beam hits a curve, such as a sloped hood, in this case, the slope of a spoiler, it could affect the reading of the speed. Are you saying this is not true? Curious, are you still doing the research on the humidity? The limits of the working operations are 90% humidity at 37 degrees C. That day was 96% humidity at 54 degrees F. Dew point definitely being higher on the second reading. Which in turn according to the manual, is beyond it’s working operation limits. Do you agree?

Thank you very much.

High humidity, rain, snow, fog and so on will affect laser but only in the sense that it will reduce the range, not give out an incorrect reading. You relate that the officer shot you at a range of 200 feet? That is VERY CLOSE RANGE. The reason the officer may had shot you at this range was because of these reasons, but the laser gun was able to lock and through its calibration confirm the speed on the display. Laser tickets are MUCH harder to fight in court than laser

Thanks for your response. This stop occurred in VA.

Hey another question:

I’m thinking about reflective error. According to the operator’s manual and other documentation on the Pro Laser III, rain, fog, humidity will all contribute to reflective error. Specifically, in the section of the manual regarding specifications for the Pro Laser III, it states that operating temperature should be -30 to +60 degrees C, 90% relative humidity @ 37 degrees C, non-condensing. So, what is condensation? It is the process by which water vapor becomes liquid and occurs when vapor is cooled to its dew point. Fog forms when the difference between the temperature and the dew point is generally less than 4 degrees F, or, restated, when water vapor condenses into tiny liquid water droplets in the air.

Let’s say I’m stopped by a police officer after being clocked by LIDAR and the temperature at that time is 45.6 degrees F with a dew point of 41.9 degrees F. That’s a difference of 3.7 degrees–less than the 4 degrees required to produce condensation. This violates the specification put out by the manufacturer of Pro Laser III that states: “operating temperature should be -30 to +60 degrees C, 90% relative humidity @ 37 degrees C, non-condensing”, correct?

Feedback please!

Oh, and another question, how long does it take the crown vic p71 to get from 0 mph to 120 mph?

Also, I thought with LIDAR, Kustom Signals, Inc. has a required course the troopers are to take. Does this apply to all states and all operators of LIDAR? And also the POST training? Is that required for all operators of LIDAR?

Ok…one more thing…I know there is an attachment that when enabled, the Pro Laser III can produce pics and times of the offense, but if the officer states he didn’t have that attachment, I thought I read they can still access the memory inside the device by hooking it up to a computer and take a picture or printout of that stop, including the time, speed, etc.

Ok. That’s all for now. Thanks.

Yes it is interesting but if the officer captured your speed, the gun would had locked

But, the manual didn’t say it wouldn’t lock on a speed, its saying it would not “lock a VALID speed”. If you look up the word “valid” in the dictionary, it means “credible”. It distinctly states underneath that “The weather mode improves the system performance by setting the minimum range to approximately 250 feet. This dramatically improves both the speed and range performance of the unit in poor weather conditions. Note that no speed or range readings will be possible inside 250 feet while in the ‘Poor’ weather mode.”

You see. The manual has no problem telling you when it will lock on a speed and when it will lock on a valid speed. That is stated in the very same paragraph. They distinguish the two when in the speed mode and when in the weather mode.

I’m not even taling about the weather mode…Even if he says the speed mode, on the paragraph where it states, “it would not “lock a VALID speed”, the key word being VALID. The definition from the dictionary of the word VALID is CREDIBLE.

In short, meaning that you will get a speed that is not CREDIBLE, versus, in the weather mode, you will not get a speed until 250 feet. In summary, what I’m getting, at 200.8 ft, whether he was in speed mode or weather mode, there either will be a reading that is not VALID or no reading at all. But I do already have the reports from the weather. He’s already indicated to me that he says it wasn’t raining. So this should be interesting.

Thanks.

I received a lidar calibration log via subpena. The last entry of the log was on 3/2/09. My speeding ticket was given on 3/22/09. I understand that the unit needs to be calibrated on a daily basis. How do I use this subpena to get my ticket dismissed? Also, I received a traffic lidar certification dated 5/22/06. Yet on the lidar calibration log, the date of the last certification was on 9/23/08. I know that the unit needs to be internally calibrated every year. But I received the certification from 2006. How do I use this evidence in court?

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