Mailed 3 moving violations from an angry off duty cop in his personal vehicle

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cervantes008

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I was on a main street in JC NJ. While I was in the left lane I noticed that a few cars were turning left and they started to back up the lane.I proceeded to change lanes to the open right lane.After changing lanes, the car in front of me decided to change too.I honked to keep him from hitting me and stopped at the red light after the intersection.The guy rolls his window down and begins to yell and say I cut him off. I noticed his PD patch and told him I didn't cut him off. He kept yelling so I rolled up my window. He follows me for about a mile while talking on his phone. Maybe looking up my plates. After a mile, he stops next to me again and says"5. I'm mailing you 5 tickets." I said, "For what?" He said "For the way you were driving" I actually sent 3 RECKLESS DRIVING, TAILGATING,UNSAFE LANE CHANGE. I looked up these points and found out he is trying desperately to have my license suspended.
 
If he is a cop from that jurisdiction he can write you the tickets. I would argue that he is not objective and fight the tickets on that basis. If he isn't from that jurisdiction he can not write the tickets without a cop from the jurisdiction there.
 
You won't have to worry about this. He was not on duty, not in a marked unit, and is really stretching his bounds.
Have you actually received the citations? I doubt they will show up.
Besides, he will be sending the citations to the registered owner of the vehicle... he does not know who the driver was.
There are so many ways out of this it is ridiculous.... but I would be surprised if you get the citations. If you do get them, your first stop should be at the PD to speak with his supervisor and get an explanation for the officer's unprofessional behavior.... and maybe even an apology.
 
I have to disagree. A cop does not have to "be on duty" they are ALWAYS on duty. They are authorized to be police officers 24 hours a day. The rest of what you said is entirely possible. I think he can get out of this, I think the cop is wrong, he will have some problem with verifying that this fellow was the driver because he has to remember the face, but he does have the ability to write the tickets.
 
Yes, always on duty, they can make arrests and all. I don't see him getting away with traffic citations by mail in this manner though. I think he would be embarrassed to explain himself in court over this. His best option would have been to make a phone call to an on duty officer so that a traffic stop could be made. I can't imagine such citations would stick... and I would still be surprised if they even show up. I'd probably be laughed out of a job if I pulled something like that. This cop just got angry. I am a million percent confident that his supervisors would make him pull the citation if the poster goes in to complain directly over the issue. The behavior is abnormal for a police officer and I really doubt he will have any support behind him.
 
Thank you all for your input. I also forgot to mention, my father is the registered owner of the car and he is in Florida. The cop cited him on the court date. The court says he has to be here on the court date.

Not sure if this matters, but the cop never identified himself. He was driving his personal vehicle. I guess he was on his way to work or home. Until now, I have no clue which police department he works for.
 
Sounds like the consensus is that this is a bogus case. I'd find out who the officer's supervisor is, and make a formal appt to discuss the matter with him/her; be VERY calm, polite, and respectful; and innocently point out that the officer did several things which seemed UNPROFESSIONAL to you (most officers are very sensitive to this, because they prefer to be viewed as "Law-Enforcement Professionals"):
• He didn't actually stop you- he yelled at you through the windows of his car & yours, in the middle of traffic.
• He refused to formally identify himself with name, badge number, or even which force he's employed by.
• He cited the wrong party, since your father obviously wasn't driving.
• If he thought you were driving so recklessly that 3 separate citations were necessary, then why did he call someone to issue citations rather than call a patrol unit to pull you over?

I can't believe your father would need to come all the way up from Florida for this.
 
Your father was never personally served and therefore does NOT have to appear for the court date. That having been said, I would have your father contact the cop's supervisor and the solicitor handling the case and complain politely that he was ticketed when he was not in the state via mail. They should be willing to drop the tickets.

When they ask him who was driving his car he should say, "How should I know. I was in Florida." Could be my son, could be one of his friends, etc etc. All I can tell you is that it wasn't me. That should be the end of the tickets.

If you call, they could always give you tickets by amending them. Get your father to handle this, play dumb, and forget "nailing" the cop. They won't do anything to him anyway.
 
If this is like it is out here, he can mail you the citations for an offense he observed - off duty or not. Jurisdiction might be an issue, but his ability to do this off duty probably is not.

If your father was the one to whom the citations were granted, he should look in to some alternative means of contesting them. I am not sure that your state has any way of doing a trial by written declaration, but something like that might be possible. Or, he can hire an attorney.

But, if YOU get involved, as previously mentioned, the cite could be amended to refer to you as opposed to your father.

- Carl
 
Carl, I would think since the father doesn't live in the state that he could probably bully the Solicitor into dropping the charges with no appearance, don't you think? I would call the solicitor politely raising hell about being mailed citations when you were never in the state. US mail is not service unless they are sure of the offender. I think they all walk on this one, don't you?
 
If the state uses a solicitor/prosecutor (mine doesn't) it might be possible to explain it ... but, "bully"? I doubt it. Besides, the prosecutor would not have any real knowledge of who is on the phone or the truth of what they are saying. It is doubtful that a phone call would resolve it unless the prosecutor is already predisposed to dismiss for whatever reason.

- Carl
 
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