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Larry Dighera wrote in
:

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 07:24:50 -0000, Skywise
wrote in
::

I noticed that the distance from the
corner to where I came to a stop seemed awfully short. Turned
out to be only about 2700 feet. So I did some calculations to
see how fast the officer would have had to accelerate and to
what speed in order to catch up to me going the alleged 68 mph
and then for me to pull over in only 2700 feet. I seem to
recall he would have had to get well over 100 and back down to
0 in that short distance.

Accelerating to 100 mph in a half mile is easily doable; My 3,800 lb
Corvette will go from 60 to 0 in 158 feet.

Yes, it's POSSIBLE, if you floor it, and then slam on the brakes.
The officer may have been "flooring" it on the bike to catch
up to me, but when he pulled me over, I didn't slam on my brakes.
I slowed down gently.


I tried arguing this to the judge, trying to show the officer
could not have in fact been there to radar me. His response
was "I happen to know for a fact that police bikes can go that
fast." Silly me, I should have said something like "what's your
evidence?"

You should have provided some evidence of your own if you could find
any to support your argument.

I had the calculations in my hand, but neve even got to show
them. The arse-hole judge slammed me mid-sentence as I started
to make my case.

Well, that's something else I learned that if it happens again,
I won't take that form the judge. I'll be polite, of course.


Incidentally, it's *bail* you post before arraignment, as you haven't
yet been sentenced/fined at that point in the process.

Yes, and the bail ALWAYS equals the fine.


Don't ever wave time when posting bail or appearing for arraignment;
that's how you can prevail. In California, the law mandates that you
receive a _speedy_trial_. The Court will try to tell you that the
21-day time begins at the time of arraignment, but if your trial date
is set more than 21-days from your arrest (citation date), it's
possible to successfully file a motion for dismissal.

Thanks for the hints. I've heard similar stuff since. Like I said,
this happened long ago when I was young and didn't know much.

I've also heard that if you go down to the courthouse immediately,
preferably the same day and demand your day in court, odds are that
you will be scheduled on a day the arresting officer can't make it
- other than the day on the ticket - and the case is dropped, unless
the guy actually wants to take time off his scheduled work to defend
a ticket.

But anyway, enough of my whining. I'm not worried about it anymore
as I just don't get caught anymore.

BTW, that's been my only ticket on the bike.

Brian
--
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
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