traffic ticket, need advice, improper use of headlights

[Warik]

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I just recieved my first ticket this evening, so I figured I might as well try and do some research online to look at my options and possible chances of getting the ticket erased.

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I will give my non-legal-experience & non-law-enforcement-experience opinion on the matter, which may or may not be correct, but will sure sound pretty smart.

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I see the cop there

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Would it have been IMPOSSIBLE for you to NOT know the cop was there? This is important. Read ahead.

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I flash my brights twice at the car.

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You probably know this already, but don't do this again - at least not at night. During the day time if there is only one cop, he has no way of knowing that you warned someone. At night it's blatantly obvious.

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-yes i was guilty i flashed the driver to and only to warn him of the cop,
- is this wrong or illegal?

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Wrong? No... only if the other driver was doing something reckless like driving 80mph in a residential area... or if he was some punk kid driving his rice rocket.

Illegal? Probably. A case could be made for obstruction of justice; however, if the cop didn't know for a FACT that the other driver was breaking the law, then he can't say you were "obstructing justice" since no crime had yet been committed.

Think of it this way.

Friend: "I'm going to kill my wife for cheating on me."
You: "Hey, don't kill your wife. Her lover is a cop and he's hiding in the closet."
Friend: "Ok. Good idea."
Cop: "You have obstructed justice by warning your friend! You are going to jail!"

It's crap. Now if the cop had confirmed that this person was speeding or ran a stop sign and you helped him evade the police, that's a different story.

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-can he prove there was no deer?

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No he can't, which is why I mentioned before that it is important for you to know if it were possible for you not to have seen the cop.

If the cop can say that it was IMPOSSIBLE for you not to have seen him, then he can say that it was more likely that you were warning the other driver. If you can get the judge or jury (I believe it is your right to get a trial by jury. Whether that is to your advantage or not is unknown to me) to believe that you DIDN'T know the cop was there, then the cop CANNOT claim you were trying to warn the driver.

"Warn him of what? I didn't even know the cop was there!"

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- can he prove if i tell the judge i was checking my lights because i had a prob with my idiot lights?

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Don't tell the judge that. You already told the cop your lights were fine.

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the road is wide and no reason to be 25mph

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Irrelevant. =)

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i was flashing my lights not at the dirver but becuase there was a deer in the farm next to the road

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If you are going to fight the ticket, then this sounds to me like your best defense. Just make sure that there is a real possibility that there could be a deer to warn someone about.

Summary:
- Use warning of deer defense. Argue that you did not know cop was there, and therefore could not have been warning anybody about him.
- Find out if requesting trial by jury would be to your advantage. If I were on your jury and you looked respectable, I would vote not guilty even if you admitted to doing it.

Any lawyers out there? Is my advice sound?

Should I become a lawyer? =)