Fw: quattro digest, Vol 1 #2837 - Ticket, Final Brief

[Larry C Leung]

In litigation happy USofA, in theory, Radar is NOT stand alone evidence.
It MUST (in theory) be corraborated by additional evidence (i.e.
estimated visual speed, VASCAR, tracking vehicle) and in many cases,
Radar is SUPPOSED to be used to support the estimated visual speed,
tracking, etc that the officer has performed. In the US of A, the foibles
of Radar are considered an actual known, and I have used this fact (as
well as calibration and "radar profiles" of the region) as an effective
defense. How LIDAR is treated, I don't know.

LL - NY



I once fought a speeding ticket and was unceremoniously put in my place
by
the judge.  My position was that there were other vehicles on the road
and
the officer could not have known for sure that the reading he got on his
radar was from my vehicle.  I asked him "how do you know for a fact that
the
reading on your radar unit came from my vehicle?"  He would turn to the
judge and say" Your honor, I have 15 years as a highway patrol officer
and
it is my opinion that the reading came from the defendant's vehicle"  I
tried to pursue asking "But how did you know for a fact?" and he did the
same thing, turned to the judge and repeated the same words.  I tried
pushing it some more and the judge told me the question had been answered
and to move on to other questions. Well!!  Somebody woke up on the wrong
side of the bed!

I lost.  Point is that the cop did not have to PROVE that he caught me on
radar.  The court accepted that if he was confident it was me, then it
must
have been me.

On the other hand, I once fought a ticket for driving without due care
and
consideration, which I won.  A major part of my argument was that the
conviction would have serious repercussions (loss of licence, loss of
job)
and that there is no way the officer could be certain the offence was
committed. Perhaps he was 'inconvenienced' by my action, but was it
really a
lack of consideration?  The judge quoted this statement in his summary
before finding that there was insufficient evidence to support the
charge.

Maybe it just depends on the judge you are up against.

Hope you have better luck, Alex.

Stephane