Lying Sheriff Speeding Ticket Help!

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jnorcross

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Last night my wife was driving our family in Adams County Colorado going eastbound on 168th Avenue. We saw a police car driving towards us about 1-2 miles away. I looked down and my wife was going 55mph in a 45mph zone. She immediately slowed to 45mph. The police car pulled off the road and stopped. When we passed by we were going 45mph and the Officer didn't have a radar gun up so I assumed he was starting to clock other people. Then he flipped around turned on his lights and pulled us over. He was a Weld County Sheriff pulling us over in Adams County. He said my wife was going 65mph which was his first lie. He took my wife's information, then came back and said he clocked my wife at 63mph, his 2nd lie. I looked at him and asked him if he honestly clocked my wife at 63mph and I said because I was watching her speedometer and she was never going 63mph. He then said he estimated she was going 63mph then handed her the ticket with 62mph written on it his 3rd and 4th lies. We both looked at him and said, "You estimated?" We went home and called the Weld County Sheriff's department and got a supervisor who seemed concerned, had to check a couple of times and call us back several times, then finally confirmed we were in Adams County but that they had an agreement with Adams County to write tickets, but if we had been deeper in Adams County the ticket wouldn't hold up. Is there anything we can do or are we just screwed?
 
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go to court! without the printout of the radar the ticket most likely will not hold. i had a similar situation in florida but it was 97 in a 75. the officer did not have the radar ticket printout that is suposed to be attatched to the ticket when filed and the court threw it out.
 
What?

I am not aware of any radar that creates a printout of the vehicle targeted.

As for the estimate of speed, radar trained officers have to qualify with visual estimation. I wouldn't put much stock in his saying he estimated 65 then saying or writing 63 or 62, because very often we round up. If he dropped a visual estimate below 65 then that is odd, but there may be a reason for doing so. When you go to court, you can ask him. If the judge feels that the officer is unable to establish the approximate speed of the vehicle to meet the elements for a violation of the section he or she might just dismiss it. On the other hand, the judge might find it sufficient to go with your wife's speed of 55 (as admitted by you) and still find your wife guilty.

- Carl
 
Interesting...

I have to say this is interesting, because my wife called back because the sheriff didn't explain how to pay the ticket, and she asked about radar print out. They said most counties in Colorado are required to provide a radar print out, but Weld doesn't. She then noticed the Sheriff put the wrong address on the ticket and put the wrong date on the ticket. He put 7/6/05 and the Weld County Supervisor said he couldn't give out legal advice but that there was at least a 50/50 chance the judge would throw the ticket out. Any additional advice?
 
I suspect that it is not a radar printout, per se, but maybe something to do with the radar's maintenance record or the officer's certification. Like I said, I am unaware of any radar in mass distribution that has any printouts of the target.

As for the date thing, it depends on the judge. if it is a scribbled misprint where it looks like the officer just forgot to close a loop, the judge is not going to care. After all, we all KNOW it was not issued on 7/6/05. Clerical errors are rarely a cause for a dismissal, so don't hang too much hope on that one.

- Carl
 
Clerical errors didn't get me off the hook in Iowa. The officer misspelled my name, got the make and model of the car wrong, copied my birthdate incorrectly, AND used the next day's date. The only thing he had right was my driver's license number.
 
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