Brief summary is I got ticketed for 21453c, I entered from the right T intersection when the light was yellow and about midway the light turns red. I was well beyond the marked line when the stop light turned red, I was looking at the light the whole time. The cop was positioned at the bottom of the T intersection, so I am curious what the officer actually looked at to determine that. WHat made me question it even more is the officer says "why were you driving so fast" when the officer approached my car and then after getting my paperwork which took about 10-15 minutes the officer came back and says "oh btw you ran that red light."
I plead not guilty which cost me 490 dollars, I am 23 years old and this is my first ticket ever. The only way I think about fighting it is the position of the cop made it difficult for the officer to see, plus why would I run the stop light if it turned red, doesn't make sense. I did speed up a little but its not much since I had to slow down to make the left turn, I was probably going at 35 or 40 mph. I have a couple of questions since I am totally ignorant about how the whole process works. I do know that you are suppose to slow down when you see a yellow, but I made a quick judgement call and by no means did I do anything illegally.
1) Do you meet with the prosecutor before the trial begins? I feel like this would be a hard case to win since I have no hard evidence like video or anything, it is pretty much he say she say. so by just showing up I can plead with the prosecutor to reduce fines and give me traffic school.
2) Once going in to the court room, I heard that if you see your officer you can change your plea to guilty. At all costs I do not want a point on my record and have my insurance go up. THis true? Plus I think the chances of the cop not showing is very small, since they are getting paid to go to court.
3) I am thinking about taking pictures of the scene and tell my story, but its just he say she say and the judge will most likely believe the cop. From your guys experience what would you guys do in my situation? Also I do not want to pay court fines and all of that so I am thinking it is a better choice to just change my plea to guilty and go traffic school.
4) also can you guys give me a brief detail of how the whole process works? Like you sit in the court room and the prosecutor shows up if you still decide to fight you go in and the officer shows up? A bit confused on the process.
I plead not guilty which cost me 490 dollars, I am 23 years old and this is my first ticket ever. The only way I think about fighting it is the position of the cop made it difficult for the officer to see, plus why would I run the stop light if it turned red, doesn't make sense. I did speed up a little but its not much since I had to slow down to make the left turn, I was probably going at 35 or 40 mph. I have a couple of questions since I am totally ignorant about how the whole process works. I do know that you are suppose to slow down when you see a yellow, but I made a quick judgement call and by no means did I do anything illegally.
1) Do you meet with the prosecutor before the trial begins? I feel like this would be a hard case to win since I have no hard evidence like video or anything, it is pretty much he say she say. so by just showing up I can plead with the prosecutor to reduce fines and give me traffic school.
2) Once going in to the court room, I heard that if you see your officer you can change your plea to guilty. At all costs I do not want a point on my record and have my insurance go up. THis true? Plus I think the chances of the cop not showing is very small, since they are getting paid to go to court.
3) I am thinking about taking pictures of the scene and tell my story, but its just he say she say and the judge will most likely believe the cop. From your guys experience what would you guys do in my situation? Also I do not want to pay court fines and all of that so I am thinking it is a better choice to just change my plea to guilty and go traffic school.
4) also can you guys give me a brief detail of how the whole process works? Like you sit in the court room and the prosecutor shows up if you still decide to fight you go in and the officer shows up? A bit confused on the process.
Last edited:
