I started this blog to help others defend themselves when fighting a speeding ticket in the State of Ohio (please help to support my efforts by purchasing your books on this subject by clicking my links, but only if you were planning on buying the books). Ohio is notorious for enforcing its speed limit, and the Appeals Courts have now allowed convictions without the need for a judicially noticed speed measuring device. I find this ridiculous and hard to believe, but as you read my future blog posts, I will point out the specific cases to support a conviction soley based upon the officer's visual estimate. I will list links for resources in my blog posts when I refer to them to enable you to find information quickly. For instance, I recommend visiting and supporting the National Motorists Association Foundation.
PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY AND I AM NOT OFFERING LEGAL ADVICE, ONLY PROVIDING MY OPINION AND RESOURCES FOR YOU TO INDEPENDENTLY DEFEND YOURSELF.
ACROSS THE UNITED STATES on a daily basis, our driving freedoms are being removed by legislatures and courts with agendas. Protect your rights by supporting the National Motorists Association Foundation. Red light and speed cameras are installed daily, police officers can now take blood and urine samples without your permission, and speed limits are set artificially low without any scientific basis.
A TYPICAL DAY IN OHIO, except you are pulled over for speeding: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ADMIT ANY GUILT TO THE POLICE OFFICER. Write down the police car number, name of the officer, ask to see the speed measuring device (radar or laser) read out to obtain the manufacturer name and model of the device, and DO NOT make yourself memorable by arguing with the police officer or by pulling out recklessly when getting back on the road from your traffic stop.
Now since you are reading this, you probably decided to fight your speeding ticket. This means showing up in court (look your best) and stating that you are not guilty and scheduling a court date. Many websites will tell you to request as many continuances as possible on the hopes the police officer is reassigned to another post, retires, quits, or cannot remember who you are (he won't remember you on your normal court date). You can try this, but understand the State of Ohio has a speedy trial statue and they will try to hold your trial within this timeframe unless you waive it. If you extend out your court date, it gives the prosecution the same amount of time to extend the trial if necessary, which may be enough to have the officer show up at the trial.
SUBPOENA PROSECUTIONS EVIDENCE: Ask for the following documentation:
1. Copy of the front and back of the traffic ticket along with the officer's notes.
2. Copy of the speed measuring device's owner's operators manual.
3. Request the tuning forks, speed measuring device and patrol car to be present at the trial.
4. Repair and calibration logs for the speed measuring device.
5. Officer's citation log.
6. Repair logs for the police car.
7. Repair and calibration logs for the patrol car speedometer.
8. Witness list for the prosecution.
DO NOT SUBPOENA the training certificate of the police officer and do not subpoena the name of the case the prosecution will use to show that judicial notice exists for the electronic speed measuring device (ESMD). No training certificate at the trial for the police officer means he was not qualified to operate the ESMD, and if the prosecutor cannot give a case where the device has judicial notice, it means the device should not be admitted into evidence.
A TYPICAL DAY IN OHIO TRAFFIC COURT: your case is called, your objections are over ruled, the prosecutors objections are sustained, and you are declared guilty by the magistrate or judge. Take the opportunity to request a jury trial, it is to your benefit to allow someone other than the judge whose court benefits from court costs to act as judge and jury. The jury trial by a panel of your peers is your only opportunity to receive a not guilty verdict unless the police officer does not show up to testify. This is what happened to me on April 13, 2009, and has happened to family members and friends of mine. After I explained my day in court, the objections, my evidence, etc. I had numerous people tell me they would have given a non-guilty verdict, and I would not have had to have filed an appeal.
THE PROSECUTION OR THE STATE presents their case first with their witnesses. You will have the opportunity to cross examine the witness (where you are allowed to ask leading questions, but the prosecutor is not allowed to ask leading questions). Object to leading questions, objections will be covered in future blogs.
DO NOT QUESTION the police officer about his training for visual estimation of vehicle speed or his training on the specific device used. You may ask him questions about what errors can be caused and the effect of them on speed readings, parameters of the ESMD, have they read the manual, etc.
ASK TONS OF QUESTIONS about the day in question. The weather, what you were wearing, color of your vehicle, specific make (in Ohio they only say pickup, sedan, etc), traffic patterns, etc. The more times you can get the officer to say he cannot recall the events and details of the stop, the better. It discredits him as a witness if he cannot remember what went happened. If the officer had to turn around to get you, ask him if he kept visual contact with your vehicle the whole time he originally clocked your vehicle, most likely he had to stop and look for traffic coming the other way.
IF YOU PLAN TO TESTIFY, I ADVISE AGAINST IT -- do not admit that you were speeding at all, not even by 1 mph. If you admit guilt, you have no recourse against the charge of speeding. In fact, I advise against testifying as it allows the prosecution the ability to trap you into discrediting yourself as a witness, and get you to admit guilt.
DO NOT MOVE FOR AN ACQUITTAL [Criminal Rule 29(A)] until the Prosecution and You rests your cases in chief. When they rest their case, ask for confirmation that they rest their case. This is where you ask for an acquittal under criminal rule 29a and state your reason: no judicial notice for the speed measuring device (moving radar, laser, etc); No training certificate for the police officer; At this point, your case should have been rested as well. Otherwise the prosecution can recall a witness and admit evidence to meet these points.
THE VERDICT IS READ: If it is non-guilty, keep your celebration to a polite smile and cheer when you get home. If your verdict is guilty, you have 30 days from the date of the judgement entry to file your notice of appeal. Most likely if you are in a mayors court or have a magistrate you will not have a jury trial and will receive a guilty verdict, or if you forgot to file the request for a jury trial. If you receive a guilty verdict from the jury trial, you can still appeal because there are elements of the case that probably were not proved, and you will figure this out from reviewing the court transcript in detail.
THE APPEALS PROCESS: This part will be scary for you even if you are an expert at writing papers and filling out paperwork for a living. I will have future blog posts dedicated to the appeals process with links to help you in your process.
CASE RESEARCH: This will be a lot of work researching cases, reading them and deciding if they support your current appeal. I will include links to PDF case opinions and decisions that you can read, cite and include with your appeal. I plan on keeping the listing of these current by providing the synopsis of what the court held and a link to the actual case opinion. This will help to save you time when supporting your arguments for appeal, and will be many of the future blogs as new case histories are made available weekly for the Ohio Appeals Court and the Ohio Supreme Court.
PREVENTION is the best medicine for not receiving a speeding ticket. I'm going to be the last one to tell you to obey the ridiculously low speed limits in the United States or Canada. Get a good radar/laser detector (either Escort or Valentine) and pay attention when it notifies you of police presence. Escort now offers detectors that tell you the location in advance using GPS of speed and red light cameras.
PLEASE NOTE RADAR AND LASER DETECTORS ARE ILLEGAL IN VIRIGINIA, WASHINGTON D.C. AND CANADA FOR PASSENGER CARS, AND ILLEGAL IN COMMERCIAL TRUCKS.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
© Copyright 2009 by Jeremy Everett. All rights reserved.
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