Sleeper05

seriously, i want those mods!

Menace

Ha, the cop is obviously a moron. I really want to see this video they have of me, because they way they are calling it, is I sped off like I was about ready to warp into another time zone... I know on the video you will probably hear me accelerating clear as day, because my exhaust is so loud... and someone might interpet that as I was accelerating way too fast, I don't know.

I think they have a feeling I was taunting them because they already had someone pulled over, and thought they wouldn't do anything. Which wasn't the case at all. I slowed down out of respect, and cleared their area before I sped back up to the speed limit.

marguerite66

These tickets always make me furious. I always slow down and move to the right for any emergency vehicle while everyone else passes me. On the highway, I also slow down and switch lanes if a trooper has someone pulled over. But everyone else just flies by. These are the people that deserve a ticket. This was clearly jealousy or typical stereo-typing of a muscle car. I agree, get a lawyer and emphasize what you were doing out of respect. Good luck!!

Andrew_06_GT

Here's my recent experience with a Texas State Trooper:

My wife, mom, and cousin with his wife and kids all go to San Antonio for the day to have fun. We left from Houston in the morning did our thing and on the way back we are on I-10 cruising at 70 MPH the speed limit. My cousin is driving in front and has his cruise control set and I'm following with my cruise control set. To add to the cake I have my Passport Radar Detector ON and of course its picking everything up no problems the whole way. So this red truck races by us and I think nothing of it. By the way we took the wife's car, a red 96 V6 camaro. The detector was going off at the time too but since I'm cruising the speed limit I don't think much of it. Then a moment later I see the lights in my rear view mirror. I think to myself that red truck is screwed.....nope lights are behind me....you gotta be kidding me???? Cops walks up to passenger side and I immediatly ask what I did. He replies "You were speeding", my mom in the car and in the backseat says "No Way!!!!" and I say "um I have been on cruise control following the car in front of me" (the car in front was my cousin's explorer and when he saw me get pulled over he pulled over as well) He takes my license, insurance, registration, and walks back to his car. Meanwhile my mom is more pissed of then I am and cries BS and my wife thinks we are getting a ticket!!! When the cop comes back he hands me my stuff and says that my odometer is off and that I should get it checked out. He also gave me a warning so I'm cool about it and tell him to have a good night and so forth. During this whole time I forget about that red truck until the whole ordeal is over. As we get back on the road my cousin calls us and says "did you get stopped for a tail light or something??" I say "speeding my friend" and he pauses then proceeds "What a queer" and then "I have my cruise control set to 70" and I reply "Yes, I know". Then my cousin says "my wife says she saw a red truck fly by just before you got stopped". Then it clicks in my head, the cop had made a mistake and ID the wrong car. Two points to this story:

1. A sports car is always gonna get flack from cops period, we just have to live with it.
2. Cop radar is limited to the idiot operating it as we see in my story.

GT John

Hey Menace,

All you have to do is get a lawyer that specializes in traffic. Pay him a few hundred bucks to take care of the tickets. The traffic tickets will be reduced to something like loud exhaust or something else that will not add points to your insurance or go on your driving record.
A friend of mine has a North Star Cadillac and races me all the time, His complaint to me is that I never really get on the GT to really blow him away. I told him, the reason I dont really get into the GT is that I dont want to get a ticket for speeding.
Now get this, he tells me that all the time he's been driving, something like 25 years, he's had 40 speeding tickets all of which he paid his lawyer $200 and the offense has always been reduced to some simple traffic violation.
So now I know that if I'm caught speeding its going to cost me $200. Thats a lot better than points.

Get a traffic lawyer. You'll be okay.

Menace

I left the house today. (Sunday) and as I was pulling onto one of the main roads I'm just driving casually, and I don't think the exhaust is too loud when I'm barely touching the gas while accelerating. Anyway, I see a cop car pull out of wherever he was hiding and I'm like. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" I'm like paranoid now, but he never came after me.

Lucy2005

Ok, Menace, here is how I would handle it. You have gotten a lot of good advice so far. Your choices are 1) to pay the tickets, and suffer the consequences, which would really suck, 2)Take the case to trial, which should give you an opportunity under discovery to see the video if there is one, and then decide if you really want to try it or not,( this is dangerous, because then you are either guilty or not guilty AS CHARGED, and wont get the benefit of any reduction fo charges the District attorney might offer you if you enter a plea to a lesser charge) or 3) be extremely nice, present yourself as a responsible person, take some responsibility, make the district attorney want to give you a break, and see if you cant resolve it in some way that will keep it off oyur insurance. Either of the second two would benefit you to have a traffic lawyer. I suggest you wear a suit and tie, even if you are the only non lawyer doing so, be extremely polite, say something nice about the trooper, even if you have to make it up, and tell the District attorney that you are really sorry if they got the wrong impression from your accelleration, but that you really were not being unsafe, that you may just not have realized that the car sounded as loud as it did. Tell him/her that the car may have appeared to be accellerating faster than it felt to you because of the sound, and the trooper may have thought you were being a smart a$$ when you reved after passing them, but what was really happening was that you slowed to pass the troopers, because you know that they have a dangerous job having to be out on the side of the highway, and you accellerated to get back up to speed after you passed them, and they probably thought you were showing off, but it was really just the sound of the car that made it appear so fast. You never squealled the tires, just accelerated.. Then say something like, " im sorry if they got the wrong impression, BUt I really am a safe driver and wouldnt do anything unsafe around them, that is why I slowed down so much in the first place"

I know it sounds like a real puss-out, but I thinnk you are probably looking for results, not just vindication. If you ARE looking for vindication, sorry, but you will not likely find it in criminal/traffic court.

Oh, and get your fromt tag on, take a picture showing you have corrected the front tag issue, and show that picture to the DA, along with any paperwork that goes along with it. She just might dismiss that portion of the charge on the spot.

Menace

Thanks Lucy,

I'm not looking to be like. "Oh, the cops were being dicks and disrespectful, picking on me" and so on. They were ********, but I understand why they were to a degree. I just don't think I was carelessly driving, and I'll gladly accept the front license plate deal because that is my fault. So as long as the careless driving is dropped, I'll be happy.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'm going to call tomorrow and let them know I am going to plead not guilty, and see what I can do about getting a lawyer, or public defender, or something.

johnnyv8

That really sucks to hear. Cops have a job to do; but there just being dick heads. How old were they? I always seem to have problems w/ cops that are like 3 years older then me (mid 20ish). The cop that gave me my first speeding ticket right in front of my college (i was going to school and i was late) was maybe 24; i was 20 at the time.

O and check out the public def before you pick him/her. Because last one i saw was not worth it; i got a lawyer.

Menace

I don't think any of them were in their 30s, so I'd say 20-30.