[Camvill]

Originally Posted by 88WS-6

Sorry that I'm late to this... I'm only quoting the first post to point out that the 1st two infractions will be dropped if you show up to court. Like a few other people said, those are for cops to give out when they don't like you. The last one can be a judgment call, it could stick but many times it gets dropped too.

If you care to indulge me, what was the first thing the officer said to you when you pulled over? Did he ask for your official vehicle documents or just demand you get out of the car? What was the total time you were on the side of the road? Were there any cars around you? Anywhere? Any school buses or tractor trailers? Were you handcuffed? Were you released to drive under your own power?

In case you guys aren't aware, every ticket has a log book with it describing EVERYTHING the officer can think of at the time. This is so if he has to go to your court date three months later he has something to jog his memory and/or so the prosecutor gets a better idea of what happened. Nowadays its even easier for them to do this with their Tough Book computer in the squad car.

First go to court and see what the prosecutor says. You have the right to a court appointed attorney and at that point you can say "No, I'll get my own." The case will be rescheduled and you can lawyer up. Tell your lawyer everything that happened and everything the cop said. Write it all down NOW somewhere so you don't forget any details. It is the officer's job to explain every infraction to you and how you violated it or it can be thrown out.

If you play your cards right, I could see it knocked down to careless driving but I'm thinking you will have a hefty fine of maybe $1-2k (ask for community service) and a loss of license for a few months. That's best case, but I'm not familiar with how the municipality in Mantua works on these cases. One thing you can do is go to the library and look up that municipality's records of how many cases similar were dropped or plead down. You can get an idea of how yours will play out and you could use it as evidence for trend setting.

Sorry you're in this situation, but there's no one else to blame.

asked for documents, looked around the car, asked why i was going that fast, went away for 5 mins, proceeded to hand me 5 tickets.....sped off