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Originally Posted by 79T/A
Not quite. Basically, that was your "arraignment," or first appearance. You ever watch "Law and Order?" Right after the arrest, the bad guy is standing in court and pleads, "Not guilty." They, they skip ahead to the trial part. This time is given so that you and/or the officer can subpoena witnesses and gather evidence.
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this is only partially true, or maybe true in some areas but not others.
first thing is, the officer has certain days of his schedule that are "court days". these are the days that he writes on tickets, and they are set aside for him to be in court to handle any cases that are contested.
if the ticket says that you must inform them that you plan to plead 'not guilty' to the offense, that is their second warning that the officer must be in court to be available to be called by you and/or the prosecutor as a witness. if this is the case, and the officer does not avail himself to the court, then you can ask that the charge be dismissed for lack of evidence, due to the officer not being available for your (assumed) cross-examination. in this state and all others of the United States, you have the right to face your accuser(s). since the officer is the accuser in this instance, you are not given the opportunity to face him if he is not in court.
i was given a citation for resisting arrest, which is an indictable offense in ocean county. i was not indicted. the case went to municipal court and i took a lawyer with me on my court date. he spoke with the prosecutor, who called out to see if anyone was there representing the ocean county sheriff's office, who wrote the citation. he called out three times, then spoke with my lawyer again and my lawyer returned to me saying that the charge was dismissed. i can only rely on what i saw and heard, which was that my accuser wasn't available. since no one was there from the sheriff's office, the charge was dismissed. i have to think that the sheriff's officers are given "court days" as well, and cannot understand why they didn't show up. i called the court, myself, about 5 weeks out from the court date, to let them know that i was contesting the charge and who my lawyer was going to be. they had fair warning to make the officer(s) available, and since there was no one there, i walked away from it, only having to pay my lawyer $400 for a court appearance.
i am not a lawyer. the preceeding statements made by me should not be used as a sole resource for knowing what you need to do to prepare to face a ticket in municipal court. if you have questions about what i have said, please talk with a lawyer. my statements are a culmination of what i have learned in the years of experience i have had personally in municipal courts, but they should not be relied upon or used as evidence in court. if you need legal advice, seek an attorney.