Need Reckless Driving Advice, I'm fighting it. - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

r0nin89 · 10-20-2006, 07:48 AM

Everything in this post is all hypothetical due to legal reasons. I'm aware that anything can be used against you in a court of law today. Any accounts of me admitting to doing anything are not real life occurances and are all hypethetical situations.

So I am pretty much at a loss of words for wht happened in the last 2 days. I was given a summonce for reckless driving by a cop in school the day after all of these events. I was at my friends and suposedly peeled out infront of his house. After that someone called the cops and reported me for driving up the street after that and said "I was racing up and down the hill". I go to my house (about 15houses up the block) and park my car on the street. Go into my house and go out to dinner.

This part is all from friends and a friends mother who witnessed a cop do this. A cop shows up about 30mins later when I am out to eat. I get a call from a friend saying park your car somewhere else. I say I'm not worried about it its not like the cop saw me do it. So the cop asks my friend who doing burnouts and racing up the street. My friends are obviously reluctant to tell the cop. So they just go along with what he says. At one point he gets out of his car and says I dont beleive you. If you dont tell me the truth I'm going to issue you all $500 fines and take you down to the station. At that point a friend of mine who has a little bit of a record and cant get in trouble tell hims theres a camaro up the street and says its mine. The cop then goes to my house, knocks on the door (I had left 30mins earlier) for about 5mins and walks around my house through my backyard twice. The whole time my neighbor is watching him. After he accepts the fact that I'm not home he goes up to my car and feels the hood and the front tires.

So I come home and shrug it off still thinking he didnt see me what ever. Goto school the next day and get called down to my vice principals office. Theres the school cop and another one standing there with my vp. The cop says to me I heard you were doing some burnouts yesterday. I look at him and say I was out to eat with my mom. He then tells me that besides the person who called my friend ratted me out. He continues to tell me about how my tires were blazing hot and he could see the marks in the road down the street. I say to him that my neighbor told me about him feeling my front tires and he then says he felt all my tires and my hood and everything was hot. So I continue my arguement trying to avoid receiving it all together and he says "Dont even try to say it wasnt you" and I respond by say word for word "I wont try to tell you it wasnt me" and continue to say do you know how many other red Camaro's there are in the area. He then tells me that I have to show up for this court date and hands me the summonce.

So I've talked with some cops and a lawyer a little bit because I have the intent of having the charges fully dropped. I just need some advice about what I have as an arguement as far as a lack of their evidence goes. As far as I have figured when I go to court I plan to argue the witness didnt give my plates, that I see 5 red camaros on my way to work/school everyday and that I wasnt even reported for doing a burnout I was reported for "racing up and down the street" which I am completely innocent of. Further more I plan to argue that my friends were threatened if they didnt supply information and that the cop is now claiming he saw me do it when he really showed up 30mins later.

Basically I am wondering if anyone here has ever won anything like this in court. I mean despite the fact that I may have done the obvious I would still like to plead innocent and try to fight it based on lack of evidence. Just looking to pick up some advice on the legal system seeing as how this is my first time true. My main concern is points not the money btw. I know since its my friend offence I could pay $400 have it dropped to careless with no points. Thats what both of my friend that recently received their first reckless driving summonces did but I think I may actually have a shot at winning this all out.

BTW: I know it was stupid what I "did" but that not the matter at hand. he matter at hand is how do I not loose my license and get points ect. I would appreciate not being bashed for how stupid the events were or how it was stupid to do that on the road or on my own street.

Savage_Messiah · 10-20-2006, 08:01 AM

get a lawyer, tell them the whole story (the truth) and let them take care of it

maroman88 · 10-20-2006, 08:02 AM

as far as i know a cop has to witness it for a ticket to be written, unless the caller signs complaints (like smokingss did)

BonzoHansen · 10-20-2006, 08:12 AM

*Get a lawyer if you feel you must fight this.
*A witness is required.
*Don't drive stupid in your (or anyone's) neighborhood.

Tsar · 10-20-2006, 08:17 AM

1. sounds like a load of

to me.
2. based on the story (eventho i think its bs) from the begining you should've denied it. dont say maybe or any of that ****. Just "no sir, it wasnt me" he has to prove you did it.
3. stop making other young people insurances go up!

Knipps · 10-20-2006, 08:46 AM

I got a reckless driving chage... car pulled a 180 in the rain with a cop behind me;

you know he couldn't have given me a break seeing as i had my license < 3 months.

i paid the 400 and still came out with points; only knocked down to careless
i don't want to know how many points i have total

10-20-2006, 08:54 AM

get a lawyer. its probably someone filiing a complaint not an actual ticket cause the cop has to witness it to give you a ticket. this should be an easy one for any lawyer to get you out if

r0nin89 · 10-20-2006, 10:22 AM

Yeah I think the lawyer might be the best way to go...

Bandit · 10-20-2006, 10:35 AM

Get a lawyer..

Tru2Chevy · 10-20-2006, 10:39 AM

Lawyer, it's the only way you have a shot.

- Justin

baddest434 · 10-20-2006, 12:11 PM

i think driving wise is the only time it sucks to be young. cops have it out for young drivers. but you are guilty to some extent, suck it up and get a lawyer and see what happens. good luck be glad you were'nt in wall twp.

Tsar · 10-20-2006, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baddest434

i think driving wise is the only time it sucks to be young. cops have it out for young drivers. but you are guilty to some extent, suck it up and get a lawyer and see what happens. good luck be glad you were'nt in wall twp.

cops have it out for jackasses on the road. ive only been pulled over once when it truly wasnt my fault (got pulled over for broken taillight, tail light wasnt broken as i showed the cop and he let me go.) However i hear people cry that cops are ******** and pull their innocent like boy/girl over everyday. Respect the law or be ready to pay when you get cought. that's all.

qwikz28 · 10-20-2006, 12:31 PM

i got one (along with many other charges at the time)... i got a lawyer and he took care of it. 40 hours of community service, no fines, no points. lawyer fees were 1500 bucks though

Rich189 · 10-20-2006, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tsar

cops have it out for jackasses on the road. ive only been pulled over once when it truly wasnt my fault (got pulled over for broken taillight, tail light wasnt broken as i showed the cop and he let me go.) However i hear people cry that cops are ******** and pull their innocent like boy/girl over everyday. Respect the law or be ready to pay when you get cought. that's all.

some cops do have it out for young people though.... ive been pulled over doing 57 in a 55 down rt 130 so the cop could give me a 20 min lecture on how us young kids in our muscle cars think we are tough and that we pretty much use our cars as a penis extension... funny part is my dad knew his boss and i just happened to have her phone number and his badge number and got him in a ****load of trouble.... but yea for the most part everytime u get pulled over its your fault so i agree with u to an extent

Fleetwiz · 10-20-2006, 12:56 PM

Lawyer

Jared1970Chevelle · 10-20-2006, 01:43 PM

lawyer for court.....beat the **** outa the kid that was a pussy and ratted you out....a brick throught the front window of the ******* old person neighbor that said you were racing up the block....and being your young i would say the cop touched you or harrassed you lol.... get him fired for going out of his way to busttt your balls,,,, what i would do but hypothetical of course for legal reason lol

r0nin89 · 10-20-2006, 02:15 PM

Thinking this may be a better route...

Gonna plead innocent and say that the road was wet from rain and I suspect that one of my friend put bleach on my tire (causing all the smoke left at the bottom of the street). Going that aproach I think I could legitimatly ask for careless driving and ask them to up the fine and take the points away. It still baffles me that I can say that john doe did something sign a ticket and show up in court to try to prove it was him...

I'm not sure if it would be wise to stick to the "It wasnt me guns" seeing as how I dont know if they gave my plate number or not. Hopefully they didnt and I will just say it wasnt me that I watched another car drive up the block and peel out when he saw me standing next to my Camaro. Then i went home behind him because I was going out.

I'll find out for sure whats going to court on monday because a neighbor of mine is a cop and I went to the station to talk to him and the first thing he says to me is "As a neighbor I am warning you that people mentioned you burning out on the street". Then I told him I already got written a ticket for it and he said come on monday and we'll look the report up.

qwikz28 · 10-20-2006, 02:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r0nin89

Thinking this may be a better route...

Gonna plead innocent and say that the road was wet from rain and I suspect that one of my friend put bleach on my tire (causing all the smoke left at the bottom of the street). Going that aproach I think I could legitimatly ask for careless driving and ask them to up the fine and take the points away. It still baffles me that I can say that john doe did something sign a ticket and show up in court to try to prove it was him...

I'm not sure if it would be wise to stick to the "It wasnt me guns" seeing as how I dont know if they gave my plate number or not. Hopefully they didnt and I will just say it wasnt me that I watched another car drive up the block and peel out when he saw me standing next to my Camaro. Then i went home behind him because I was going out.

I'll find out for sure whats going to court on monday because a neighbor of mine is a cop and I went to the station to talk to him and the first thing he says to me is "As a neighbor I am warning you that people mentioned you burning out on the street". Then I told him I already got written a ticket for it and he said come on monday and we'll look the report up.

i think i stand for everyone on this board when i say that's quite possibly the dumbest thing i ever heard. not like funny and witty dumb. more like i feel bad for your ignorance towards life dumb. man up and listen to what every older and wiser person that has replied has said and get a damn lawyer.

too expensive? no its not, they'll appoint one for you. sure the court appointed lawyers suck and your better off paying one but its better then your sorry ass excuses. try that excuse in court, i hope the judge throws the book at you. (literally and figuritively)

misterjuice · 10-20-2006, 02:36 PM

so you're gonna lie in court....that it was wet. I wouldn't wanna be held in contempt...

Bandit · 10-20-2006, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r0nin89

Thinking this may be a better route...

Gonna plead innocent and say that the road was wet from rain and I suspect that one of my friend put bleach on my tire (causing all the smoke left at the bottom of the street). Going that aproach I think I could legitimatly ask for careless driving and ask them to up the fine and take the points away. It still baffles me that I can say that john doe did something sign a ticket and show up in court to try to prove it was him...

I'm not sure if it would be wise to stick to the "It wasnt me guns" seeing as how I dont know if they gave my plate number or not. Hopefully they didnt and I will just say it wasnt me that I watched another car drive up the block and peel out when he saw me standing next to my Camaro. Then i went home behind him because I was going out.

I'll find out for sure whats going to court on monday because a neighbor of mine is a cop and I went to the station to talk to him and the first thing he says to me is "As a neighbor I am warning you that people mentioned you burning out on the street". Then I told him I already got written a ticket for it and he said come on monday and we'll look the report up.

hmmmm 99.9% say get a lawyer.. If you go to court without one you will wish you had one when the judge is done with you.

r0nin89 · 10-20-2006, 02:58 PM

It was wet... Thats not a lie. The ground was damp from previous rainfall. Not like it just rained wet but like in the shade of a tree didnt evaporate from yesterday wet. I'm definatly going to use the appointed lawyer at least. But I know the appointed lawyer is just going to say I'll talk to the prosecuter and have it lowered to careless with the option to pay extra for no points. Thats what they do for every reckless the first time you get one in this town. I'm just thinking that I might have a fighting chance to not roller over and pay the $400 for the lowered charge and rather fight it to walk away clean.

Bandit · 10-20-2006, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by r0nin89

It was wet... Thats not a lie. The ground was damp from previous rainfall. Not like it just rained wet but like in the shade of a tree didnt evaporate from yesterday wet. I'm definatly going to use the appointed lawyer at least. But I know the appointed lawyer is just going to say I'll talk to the prosecuter and have it lowered to careless with the option to pay extra for no points. Thats what they do for every reckless the first time you get one in this town. I'm just thinking that I might have a fighting chance to not roller over and pay the $400 for the lowered charge and rather fight it to walk away clean.

do you have a job? Only people without a job or no means of support get a court appoint lawyer. You own a car, so you must be able to pay for it.

Sphinx · 10-20-2006, 03:15 PM

I had the school cop come up to me before, and threaten to give me a ticket and revoke my driving privilages to school b/c some Old ass female Adult Education student said she saw me pass 6 cars at one time... I smiled and left - came back the next day with proof i was at work during the "claimed" time of the incident, and i want my name removed from any attention. Plus i only had 2 gears....

but i would be prepared to get raped sooner or later in that situation. They will get your money, one way or another. Thats there job and they are pretty damn good at it.

JL8Jeff · 10-20-2006, 03:16 PM

If you spun your tires then you're guilty of careless or wreckless driving. Don't try fighting what you can't win. The big question is if the cop didn't witness it then is it still wreckless/careless if someone else witnessed it? Wet conditions are not an excuse for not controlling your vehicle so don't bother trying to use that. You're gonna owe something so keep it to a minimum.

WildBillyT · 10-20-2006, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by qwikz28

i think i stand for everyone on this board when i say that's quite possibly the dumbest thing i ever heard. not like funny and witty dumb. more like i feel bad for your ignorance towards life dumb. man up and listen to what every older and wiser person that has replied has said and get a damn lawyer.

Exactly. Do not under any circumstances lie under oath.