I apologize for the length of this, but it is a bit complicated, and I believe I have been wronged significantly in this case; I would appreciate your time and input, if you can offer it.
I recently received a stop sign violation and did not believe the officer was correct in issuing it. When I discovered the video from his car, it shows that he began following me in a 25mph city zone, did not catch up to me until 1.5 mi later after following me down three different roads. He claims that I ran a stop sign on a 500-yard alleyway that has one cross street with a stop sign. When he turns onto that alleyway (as shown by his vehicle's videotape), my car is already gone down another road altogether. The alleyway is surrounded by buildings, and the stop sign and intersection cannot be seen from any other road.
I have an added difficulty in that I had to change my court date because business travel took me out of town on the day of my trial, but the traffic court wouldn't let me move the date back because they said it had already been moved once (they forced me to move it when I came in the first time, saying that first appearance was just the arraignment and I'd have to come back later). In any case, in my county you can have a jury trial for this offense, so I was forced to have it changed to county court for a jury trial; I believe it will ultimately be moved to state court.
My question is this: what do I need to do to be sure that I can play this video to the jury in court? What do I need to do to ensure I can present a diagram of the city and the path of the cars the night I was written a ticket? What other information do I need in order to navigate this trial successfully? I certainly don't have money to spend on a lawyer for this, but I also can't afford the 3 points on my record and don't want to pay the $180 fine. Thank you for any assistance you can offer!
I recently received a stop sign violation and did not believe the officer was correct in issuing it. When I discovered the video from his car, it shows that he began following me in a 25mph city zone, did not catch up to me until 1.5 mi later after following me down three different roads. He claims that I ran a stop sign on a 500-yard alleyway that has one cross street with a stop sign. When he turns onto that alleyway (as shown by his vehicle's videotape), my car is already gone down another road altogether. The alleyway is surrounded by buildings, and the stop sign and intersection cannot be seen from any other road.
I have an added difficulty in that I had to change my court date because business travel took me out of town on the day of my trial, but the traffic court wouldn't let me move the date back because they said it had already been moved once (they forced me to move it when I came in the first time, saying that first appearance was just the arraignment and I'd have to come back later). In any case, in my county you can have a jury trial for this offense, so I was forced to have it changed to county court for a jury trial; I believe it will ultimately be moved to state court.
My question is this: what do I need to do to be sure that I can play this video to the jury in court? What do I need to do to ensure I can present a diagram of the city and the path of the cars the night I was written a ticket? What other information do I need in order to navigate this trial successfully? I certainly don't have money to spend on a lawyer for this, but I also can't afford the 3 points on my record and don't want to pay the $180 fine. Thank you for any assistance you can offer!
