Entered left turn lane early across yellow hash marks

[jbopinionated]

My wife was turning left at a stop light and entered the turn lane early. She cut across a small area of the slanted yellow lines that precede left turn lanes in NC these days. This "dead zone" of pavement was extra wide because at this particular intersection there are two left turn lanes side by side. My wife entered the right lane of thes two.So she never even came close to touching the lane for oncoming traffic. She did this because traffic in the single, straight/right turn lane was stopped and backed up past the middle of the "dead zone", but the left turn lanes were empty. Three cars ahead, In the straight lane was a sheriff's deputy who waited until my wife was stopped at the light and then proceded to pull out and "pull her over". On the ticket he wrote that she "overtook stopped vehicles without clear visibilty to see oncoming traffic and for driving left of the center line". It is completely impossible where this occurred for there to not be visibility of oncoming traffic and as I said before, she never even came close to touching the oncoming traffic lane.

Sorry for the long sob story. My queston are:
Is what my wife actually did illegal?
Should we get A lawyer?
Or should she just go to the courthouse and plead for mercy?

 

[Betty3]

She can pay the ticket or she might want to talk to a traffic law attorney & see what he/she might be able to do for her.

 

[army judge]

If traffic school is available, TAKE it. Traffic school is a cheap, sure fire winner to remove the stain of a traffic citation.