TexasCHLforum.com

This was posted by someone else on another board:

A CHL will get YOU out of a ticket...
but not me.

(say the last part first - I got a speeding ticket. I have a CHL. First stop since getting CHL. It's a questionable stop, but there's no question I got a ticket.)

So, we're driving home from a Sunday afternoon at the beach in Galveston. I stop at 518 to get gas. My wife has me take some back road to get back to the freeway, since she grew up on 518. Of course, I shouldn't have listened to her, because instead of getting right back on the freeway, we have to drive up to Bay Area Blvd to get back on.

Anywho, as we're riding up the feeder (that's what it's called here in Houston, feeder, not access road or whatever...) there's a car doing about 35 in the left lane, which is the lane that leads onto the freeway, and getting onto I-45 at under 45 MPH isn't how it works. So I accelerate and pass them in the right lane. I am sure I was going faster than 45MP (posted speed) so I'll accept that.

A cop is pulling out of the strip center at the same time I'm passing and then getting back over to enter the freeway. He pulls out... lights me up as soon as I enter. I pull over. I get out my licenses. He walks up, he asks for license. I hand him DL and CHL. He asks if I'm carrying, I say I am and it's right here (pointing down below my feet.) He says, "no problem, just keep your hands up by your steering wheel. Do you have insurance?" I tell him I do and it's in my console, and he says, "don't worry about it, I'll look it up. "

"The reason I stopped you is I verified your speed at 67 MPH."

"Hmmm... I didn't think it was that fast, but I was going around a car doing about 35, which you probably saw."

"I'll be right back."

He goes and does his thing and comes back with a ticket 65 in a 45.

"So, you got me on radar doing 67?"

"Yeah, I saw you about 500 yds back and pointed THE LASER out the window and got you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I got cars coming off that exit ramp all the time."

"I wasn't on the exit ramp."

"But I saw you dart out around that car."

"Right, because they were going slow and I didn't want to try to get on I45 doing 40."

So... A cop rolling out of parking lot picked me up 500 yards away, doing 67... when 500 yards away, I was behind another car... because I also had to "dart out" which he also saw...

What really happened is, a cop saw me swing around a car... I was definitely speeding. No problem with that. Just say, "you had to be going over 45 when you passed me." Don't lie and say, "I put the laser on you... out the window..."

1. he was rolling perpendicular to me. rolling with laser = not gonna work. rolling perpendicular with a laser REALLY won't work.
2. he acted as if he saw me coming off an exit ramp - i was not.
3. i got a ticket in Webster, tx with a CHL... on a bull case... if it wasn't 40 miles from my house to Webster, i'd show up with my attorney. instead, i'll just take DD (assuming the fees aren't too high, because if they are, i'll take them to a jury trial for jacking me around.)

He was nice enough and whatnot, but he's lying... so much for the, "you're one of the good guys and i'm not against you"...

Demand a jury trial.

+1 - that sounds like a slam dunk.

Save the gas receipt if you have one to prove you were not coming off the freeway. Hopefully it has the date and time on it.

I'd take a day off and take it to court.
Sounds like an easy win, and you don't need to let guys like that get away with it. Even if you were guilty, the officer was unprofessional. He needs to be reminded of the rules.

I had something similar happen to me decades ago. Had a good time in court, I did.
Yeah, I was found guilty, fined $5.00. I appealed. Later got a dismissal letter.

You are correct that if he was moving the laser would be less accurate.

It is possible to get someone out the window at 500 yds with lidar. I've had readings on cars well over 1600 yds. Since I don't run much speed enforcement, I like to play with the laser if I get one for a day. I can get readings on cars through all the mirrors on my car - including the rearview - which means going through the plexiglass on the cage, and the rear window.

Lidar is cool for sure, but it is only reliable when you're stationary.

In my younger years I had *many* tickets, and they were all justified (meaning I was speeding, etc.), with the exception of ONE. For this one I went to court, had a witness, etc. The cop lied on the stand, the prosecutor was extremely manipulative (and made my witness look like a bumbling idiot, she was really good, but not for me, oh well), it was a jury trial, I even had video evidence, the judge said she believed my side but the jury had spoken and I could appeal by paying a $200 fee, etc. if I wanted to. I learned to *never* go in a courtroom as your own lawyer. Either hire a lawyer or do deferred adjudication.

gigag04 wrote:You are correct that if he was moving the laser would be less accurate.

It is possible to get someone out the window at 500 yds with lidar. I've had readings on cars well over 1600 yds. Since I don't run much speed enforcement, I like to play with the laser if I get one for a day. I can get readings on cars through all the mirrors on my car - including the rearview - which means going through the plexiglass on the cage, and the rear window.

Lidar is cool for sure, but it is only reliable when you're stationary.

Lidar is indeed cool and my radar detector will detect it and screech loudly. Unfortunately it will be to let me know that I'm the one the officer will be pulling over.

T.

It's things like this that cause people to start mounting their own video and audio equipment in front and back of their personal vehicles. I got hustled by a State Trooper when I was much younger in Ohio, since then I start a recorder as soon as I see lights and I'm sure it's me being stopped.

PUCKER wrote:In my younger years I had *many* tickets, and they were all justified (meaning I was speeding, etc.), with the exception of ONE. For this one I went to court, had a witness, etc. The cop lied on the stand, the prosecutor was extremely manipulative (and made my witness look like a bumbling idiot, she was really good, but not for me, oh well), it was a jury trial, I even had video evidence, the judge said she believed my side but the jury had spoken and I could appeal by paying a $200 fee, etc. if I wanted to. I learned to *never* go in a courtroom as your own lawyer. Either hire a lawyer or do deferred adjudication.

My experience was a bit different. I was well prepared, and the cop had no idea I suspected him of rigging his radar display after the fact. The officer was stammering under cross-examination, and the city attorney was asking me if I was an attorney and who my friend next to me was. It was fun.
For $200 you get an attorney who will file for deferred adjudication for you. You can do that yourself. If you want to beat a bad rap (however minor, it's the principle) and get a lawyer who will actually research the case and defend you, you will pay a lot more. So, if you are right, and have the evidence/witnesses, do your homework, sit in on a court session prior to your day to see how it works (and what the court is like). Then do your best Perry Mason routine, always respectful of the court and the rules of play. Make your case. Expect a guilty verdict, then appeal if you wish. THEN you need a lawyer. I've never gotten that far.

Rex, I meant hire a lawyer if you plan to go to court to fight the ticket. I've called up and requested deferred adjudication with no issues. You are obviously a *much better* "lawyer" than me!

Before cities became "courts of record" (in the "good ole days") you could send your traffic ticket and $45 or so to Stigler or Mallory (for Tarrant county) or Corn (for Dallas county) and they'd immediately appeal it to the county level. It would usually "sit" in the case hopper for awhile and most of the time it would expire and that was the end of that (don't ask me how I know! LOL). Sometimes you'd get "lucky" and your case would get pulled. You'd get a letter from the lawyer to show up at either the Dallas or Tarrant County Courthouse at such and such time, this room, etc. There would be someone from the law firm that you'd check in with, they'd take care of roll call.

Out of the 30+ tickets that I did this for, only 3 or 4 of them turned out that I had to show up in court. Usually the officer didn't show so the ticket/case would be dropped. Out of those 3 or 4 only ONE case did the cop show up. The lawyer asked what I wanted to do, I told him do whatever it takes to keep it off of my record and as cheap as possible. He tells me to grab lunch and meet him back at 1 pm. He confers with the persecutor (yes, intentional LOL) and comes back and says "Mr. ____ you are free to go."

I ask him how/why/what transpired? He answered "Super technical Bull Poo" - the cop wrote down 1600 WEST NW Hwy (or some such number) and there is NO "WEST" NW Hwy, only NW Hwy, so in other words, he reported that you committed this offense at a location that does not exist, the state has 2 years to re-file but it is highly doubtful that they will do this. They didn't. It was gone, just like that.

Pucker,
The day I graduated HS I bought a Mach 1 Mustang. I sent many checks to Mr. Mallory (and a couple others) back in the early 1970s. None ever made it to appeals court, I was lucky.
I've not tried to appeal one since all the local burgs became courts of record. I'm not sure how that changed things, except I was told appealing takes real money and a real lawyer. Fortunately, Deferred adjudication became cheap and easy in recent years.
I'm getting a lot slower and more careful now, with the occasional exception viewtopic.php?f=15&t=30095" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Armybrat wrote:A CHL will get YOU out of a ticket...

It hasn't happened yet.

On the other hand, "see and avoid" has made traffic stops so infrequent that I just take DD and get the insurance discount.

Rex - I see a common thread with us and tickets and high school...it was a 5.0 Mustang GT that was my poison. I knew the office staff of David Stigler quite well! I sent my share of tickets to Mallory as well. Once I got out of drag-racing my speed-demon days were a thing of the past!

Funny (and true) story. I get called for jury duty a few years back here in Grapevine. I show up and all of the potential jurors are led into the courtroom for voir dire (jury selection) by the opposing attorneys, etc. The premise of the case is laid out (speeding), the witness (a GV PD motorjock) is introduced and the judge asks if anyone knows the witness, no one does. The prosecutor is introduced, judges asks the same, no one. The defendant (Mrs. _______) and her attorney (Mr. James Mallory) are introduced, question is asked. I raise my hand. The judge says "Sir, you know Mr. Mallory?" I answer with "Yes, but not in the first-person sense, I know him because in years past I've sent many a dollar to him and the results were as advertised, I've been very pleased with the service he offers, I'm glad that I now get to meet him face to face" (Mallory was BEAMING from ear to ear!). The judge asked if I could remain impartial and I told him that I believed that I could not. The prosecutor, obviously, had no issue striking me. I don't know how that case turned out but I'd guess that it went in favor of the defendant. I was really glad to meet Mr. Mallory, seriously!

My last ticket was May 2009. I sent it to Jim Lollar in Fort Worth along with the requisite fee. Here we are 14+ months later and still it has not gone to court.

Cop was completely uninterested in the 1911 sitting in my center console, he was more concerned that I was wearing corrective lenses as I had my contacts in. He made me open my eyes and rub the contact around so he could see it move.