Wreckless Driving and Unlawful Weapon(pocket knife)

[Carolina3185]

The other night I peeled out from my parking spot in a BooksAMillion parking lot in Columbia. I didn't notice a police officer in a marked jeep crusor was going to get coffie from BooksAMillion with an off duty cop. The officer ran to his car, peeled out himself, and pulled me over. He ran up to the car with a gun in hand, yelling at me to get out of the car, and that i was going to jail for wreckless driving. When getting out of my car, I was turned around, pushed up against my car, then dragged to the end up my car, pushed down onto the trunk, and placed in handcuffs while the officer continues to yell at me. The off duty cop walks up and pulls my pocket knife out of my pocket and hands it to the officer. Then the officer tells me that it is an unlawful weapons, and he'll have to write me a ticket for that. Than I get yelled at a little more. Things like "You saw my big jeep there and you still peeled out doing 180's and 360's!, "I'm going to treat you like a IRMO cop would," "You're going to Jail for Wreckless Driving," and "your car is going to be towed." Then the officer starts talking to me, realizing that I wasn't pay him and is big jeep cop vehicle any attention, and decideds not to take me to jail and write up a field report, and write me two tickets. Wreckless driving, 445 dollars, and unlawful weapon, 465 dollar(the knife being under 3 inches, and visable from a distance. After peeling out of my parking spot in a nearly empty parking lot, driving to the end of the isle, stopping, taking a left and turn, then going to the end of that isle, stopping, and taking a right and turn, then stopping when seeing the blue lights, was the officer in the right to treat me in that manner? after he calmed down he told me that he pulled me over because the "thought I saw him, and spun out on purpose to piss him off." Then justified treating me that way because "people tended to run off, shoot him, etc., when he approaches." Is wreckless driving the appropriate charge for the peeling out? May be it could be an unlawful start from a position? And is fair to be charged for the pocket knife when it was completley visable, and not anyway used to harmt he police officer, and the kinfe being under 3 inches?

 

[lwpat]

Reckless Driving South Carolina

The other night I peeled out from my parking spot in a BooksAMillion parking lot in Columbia.

Not real smart as you have found out. In Georgia they could actually seize your vehicle and keep it although I have not heard of this happening. It doesn't matter whether you feel that you were treated fairly. All that matters is that you now have two serious tickets to deal with. Assuming that you are a minor you cannot represetn yourself in court. You will need an attorney or either one of your parents to appear with you.

My suggestion would be for you to retain an attorney since the reckless charge is very serious and could easily lead to several thousand dollars in extra insurance premiums or suspension of your license. I don't think that they can make the weapon charge stick. One out is that you use it in your work but that needs to be verified.

An attorney may be able to work something out before your trial and save you money. Otherwise you may want to consider a jury trial. Check the find an attorney link on this site. Only if no one is listed then send me an email as I have some attorneys that I have used before in Columbia.