While fleeing an abusive husband in Alabama, I was cited for 85 in a 70 in Virginia while headed to my dad's house in Delaware where I have since resettled. It was my first speeding ticket in my 10 years of driving history and when I got the ticket I had literally been running on 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night for the past 3 weeks. I have bipolar disorder and the stress of the whole situation was getting to me. Plus, my soon to be ex had been calling me during the trip, threatening to kill himself if I didn't come back to Alabama. I literally went into a full blown anxiety attack in my car in front of the officer, I just couldn't handle another thing. He was trying to talk me into calling an ambulance but I refused. He was really nice and told me that it wouldn't be a big deal in court if my record was clean, which it is. I was so tired that I really didn't know how fast I was going until I saw the officer in my rear view mirror. I was also going down a steep hill and I guess the car just caught speed from the momentum.
Another thing, the officer wrote down my first name as Megan and my last name as King-Smith. My legal middle name is King and my legal last name is Smith. Does that affect anything? I'm assuming that he misread the name on my Alabama driver's license.
I don't think I can handle the stress of driving through rush hour DC traffic to make a court date in the suburbs at 9:00 AM so I'm having my dad drive me. I'm prepared with my best business suit and my dad wants to come in case the judge needs someone to verify that yes, I was tired and EXTREMELY stressed out.
What would be the best way to plead my case? I'm VERY obsessive about my credit and my driving record so I want to minimize this as much as possible. My dad says that I drive like an old lady so this isn't normal behavior for me.
Another thing, the officer wrote down my first name as Megan and my last name as King-Smith. My legal middle name is King and my legal last name is Smith. Does that affect anything? I'm assuming that he misread the name on my Alabama driver's license.
I don't think I can handle the stress of driving through rush hour DC traffic to make a court date in the suburbs at 9:00 AM so I'm having my dad drive me. I'm prepared with my best business suit and my dad wants to come in case the judge needs someone to verify that yes, I was tired and EXTREMELY stressed out.
What would be the best way to plead my case? I'm VERY obsessive about my credit and my driving record so I want to minimize this as much as possible. My dad says that I drive like an old lady so this isn't normal behavior for me.
