Subject: Ideas on how to handle crooked cop

From: [email-masked] (Rob Stokes)
Date: 3 May 1995 04:12:55 GMT

The other night, a cop stopped me along with one other driver and wrote us
up for 70 in a 55.  He told me that he had paced us for 3 miles before
stopping us.  He said we both were going the same speed.
I agree that we were going the same speed, but neither of us agreed to the
charge of 70.  In two separate conversation with the cop, we confirmed 64
mph.  (After this fact came out, the cop got real mad and uncooperative.) 
The other driver and I knew this was a crooked cop.  Now we're working
together to come up with a defense.

One of the situations I think plays into this is the cop's quota of
tickets for the month and when that quota is due.  Since this occurred on
April 30th, he was probably pushing it for tickets.  Discovery is a
process that I try to always use to get this information, but it never
yields any useful information.  How can I obtain this information from the
county before the court date?

Using my testimony and the other driver's testimony, I don't think we'll
have a hard time disqualifying the cop as a witness.  My scare is that the
other driver's testimony of "I was doing 64 along with Rob" will be
incriminating.  Anyone have any ideas about how to keep this information
from coming out in court.  Remember, this will be a valid question the
prosecution can ask.
To consider one other option here, what about a notarized letter of
testimony?  A letter would be good because my witness would not be there
to answer the prosecution's questions.  Can I use a letter in court
instead of the actual witness?  If so, does the signature of "Under pain
or penalty of perjury" make it a legal document?

Any ideas would be appreciated.  Please mail any responses to me.  All 3
of our news servers seem to be messed up.  It might be from the recent
Internet router change or our net is just broken.
Rob Stokes
Mail: [email-masked]

---

From: Thakar Hiren H <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 00:16:01 -0500

First of all you may want to get a lawyer, you'll be suprised what about 
a $100 will do.  It may save you lots, and the lawyer is specifically 
important in a pacing case (I recently got off a 45+ pacing ticket... 
scott free).  
If you can convince the court that the cop is knowingly doctering 
testimony concerning the speed, this should be enough to get the ticket 
droped, regardless of the fact that you were still going 9mph in excess.  
Anyway, 9mph is very hard to hold up in court.
Unfortunately, the court has a tendency to believe a cop, maybe even over 
two witnesses, so the fact that the court will believe you over the cop 
is questionable, to be sure at least ask a lawyer.  And also you may want 
to look up the rules concerning pacing in your state, you'd be surprised 
at some of the restrictions placed on the method; you may get lucky.
Crooked cops are troublesome, quotas are even worse, and justice rarely 
important with speeding ticket...  Good Luck.

_______________________________________________________________________________
Hiren Thakar
email: [email-masked]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

From: Thakar Hiren H <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 00:16:01 -0500