Long story short, I (justifiably) got pulled over by a city motorcycle ofc. while riding my Harley and the stop was easy, light hearted and seemingly textbook. He even wrote the ticket for speed less than I was doing (trying to outrun a FL storm)
I asked, “I can just pay the ticket and do the school then”? He repeated to me multiple times in conversation that I should take him to court on it. Told me that it’s easy, and done by Zoom and made it seem like that’s what I should do. Then we just talked about bikes for a bit and he said it once more and we left like old friends.
What am I missing? I never get pulled over so I’m confused as all hell. Why would I want to take him to court?
Comments
From your post I assume you’re in Florida? You may be able to negotiate a better deal for yourself if you take it to court. I always suggest taking citations to court here. If you pay the ticket and elect traffic school you are pleading guilty and completing traffic school will remove the points on your license. If you take it to court you can request the judge withhold adjudication and pay the fine without points or traffic school. That’s one possibility that saves your time and money. You can also request the charge be amended to a non-moving violation (no points) and pay the fine. This is a very regular occurrence here.
Some agencies don’t give officers as much discretion as others when comes to this stuff. Maybe he can drop it in court or he can “lose” a bench trial. I’m not in Florida so I’m not sure how municipal court works there. Odd that he wouldn’t write you a warning instead though.
It sounds to me like the officer was required to write the citation and was trying to help you out. He probably knew that it was likely that either the citation would get dismissed or that the penalty would be reduced in court.
I’ve done that before. I was ordered to write a citation to the victim of a car theft. I told the victim to show up to court and told them I intended to testify that I did not want to issue the citation and that I was ordered to do so. Unfortunately, the victim did not show up for the court date and got a bench warrant issued for them.
Because you have the right to argue your case and possibly get driving school. I tell people how to argue and beat me in court all the time.
He basically telling you to take him to court because he won’t show up and the ticket will be tossed
I usually take a similar approach. Officer is being genuine in telling you to help yourself out by going to court or pleading not guilty.
If he tells people how to pay it, it will inevitably lead to someone complaining that he’s a revenue collector and tried to bully them into not contesting it. Taking the approach he did shows fairness and removes the opportunity for anyone to complain.
If you do contest it, prepare for court with the assumption that the officer will be present and will do his 100% best to prove his case.
I do this on most tickets. Sometimes we are required to write certain tickets. I’ll read the instructions to someone and basically just say “contest the ticket cause I won’t show up”. Still haven’t heard from traffic division to bitch me out yet.
I would take the issuing officers advice.
Sounds like the motocop was hinting to take it to court because he wouldn’t be there, thus dropping your charges.
Maybe he needs court time? Lol or he is retiring before it gets to court and they’ll dismiss it for lack of a prosecution witness?
He wants you to contest it either because he won’t show and charges will be dropped or he will show and agree to drop the charges himself. Had this happen when I “ran” a red light. Cop saw it happen, technically I did go through on red but he encouraged me to contest because of how it happened
That’s a courts question, not a cop question. He’s probably trying to stay in his lane
Idk about Florida but in my state you can go to traffic court and plead no contest on the citation. With a decent DL record you can request to pay the fine, be put on deferred sentence or probation and at the end of the agreed period for the points for the citation not be added to your DL record. It saves you on insurance costs and maybe from a suspension of your DL should you be cited for another infraction.
because he’s giving you a wink wink nudge nudge that he won’t present evidence at trial, and the case will be dismissed.
He is a motor cop, which likely means his whole job is traffic enforcement and writing citations – a role that is stats based (no, there is no quota, but if your stats don’t show you doing what is asked of you in that role, they’ll put someone in that spot that will instead). He is expected by his agency to enforce traffic violations, but the agency doesn’t care what happens on the back end (reduced penalty or dropped charges due to no officer showing up to traffic court). He’s telling you to take it to court because he also doesn’t care what happens on the back end, and will either not show up, or knows it will easily be reduced or dropped based on how his court system has handled things before.
TLDR; he didn’t really want to write you a ticket bc you were respectful and kind, but his position at the dept kinda leaves him expected to write tickets.
Where I am that would be considered legal advice and I’d get in trouble for it. Do I want you to take it to court? Absolutely, I get paid over time to go with a minimum 4 hour payment even though I’m probably going to be in court for about 20 min on average, but there are much better ways to encourage someone to go without it being considered legal advice.
Also anyone who goes to court where I am is likely (verging on 100% of the time depending on your record) to have the charge reduced to avoid points and cost, and if there are any document tickets like not having your licence, permit or insurance papers on you to surrender they will be withdrawn completely if you can show the court you do in fact have them when court takes place.
TL:DR
So to answer your question, he said it to make more money when he gets paid a premium to attend court.
May just be trying to avoid an accusation that he told you to just pay it off. If I tell someone to pay the ticket off and that makes them believe they can’t go to court their could be a legal argument there to get me in trouble.
He can’t get in trouble if he tells you to go to court, as long as he isn’t giving legal advice. Telling you to go to ciurt and fight it is the most basic right you have, so there’s no confusion nor possible way he’s telling you to ignore that right. At my PD, we are actually bound by policy if I remember correctly to explain if you court date is mandatory or not. Typically, I explain to someone their options one to help them out and two to make sure it doesn’t seem like I told them to ignore their right to court and pay it off.
In Florida there are 2 things you can do in court.
Fight it. I’m not sure if he’s telling you he will dismiss it or not. If he’s a Motor unit, he will definitely be in court.
You can plea “no contest.” This is what the vast majority of people do in traffic court. It means you are willing to pay the fine and are asking the judge/hearing officer to withhold adjudication. They will ask the officer if he/she objects. 99% will not object if you were polite and easy to deal with. They will check your driving history to make sure you’re not a repeat offender.
This generally means the points will be withheld and basically accomplishes the same thing as traffic school without having to pay for it and attend. Pay the fine, but get no points.
This is most likely what he was trying to tell you.