Okay so today I was rafting in golden and coming home i turned right at a red light onto 19th and apparently my stop wasn't quite complete enough since a block down the road my rear view mirror is flashing.

But anyway, the whole situation seems a little strange to me and i'm really confused about what my options(if any) are.

Now apparently since i'm under 18(for another two months) I have no choice but to go to court. This is the first thing that confuses me since my friend who is younger than me got a speeding ticket last summer and didn't have to go to court so I don't know if that's just a rule in golden or what.

Also, the cop asked my age and two seconds later said he was going to look up my driving record to see if he could give me a plea bargain. My driving record is COMPLETELY clean without ever even being pulled over before yet for some reason i can't get a plea bargain?

So on the ticket it says i'm charged with "failed to observe or disregarded traffic device" which is a four point offense, no plea bargain and i have to go to court august 23. So is there anything i can do to get the points knocked down or anything or am i basically doomed to go to court and get knocked 4 points and pay a fine?

any help advice or clarifications of my situation are appreciated

thanks
kaiser

 

Usually, there is no "plea-barginning" on the street- that's a legal term reserved for the court. When you go to court, you'll be asked to check in and will have a chance to talk with the DA before entering a plea (guilty, not guilty, no contest). THAT'S when you can request if they can drop the charge to something lower (both points and fine), particularly if you have a clean record. Hire a lawyer? That's your call, but be forewarned that you'll have several hundred dowllars to pay for something as simple as a traffic charge.

BTW- when you go to court, be prompt, polite and wear a suit (if you've got one). Take the entire morning (or afternoon) off, so you're not pressured by time. Recognize that your conduct in court will either help or hurt your case.

 

maybe the officer was the DA moonlighting. You'll go for arraignment first, that is when the DA will offer you a deal. The offer will be something like a broken tail light or cracked windshield reduced to 2 points.

 

okay first, thanks for the comments. BUT the police officer CAN sometimes offer plea bargains roadside. There are three boxes they can check off on the ticket, 1. (plea bargain)says you can just sign a paper admitting guilt and mail in payment for a lesser offense
2. You can't get a lesser offense but you can just send in the full fine and not mess around with court or you can chose to come to court and fight it i guess
3. Mandatory appearance in court. this is the one he checked for me and all it says is i have no choice but to come to court.

What do you guys think though, since i have an otherwise clean driving record, what do you think i can get the ticket taken down to?

 

What he's saying is that some municipalities do have an automatic "plea bargain" on their tickets--usually if you pay by a certain time, you'll get an automatic point deduction--apparently this doesn't apply when you're under 18.

kaiser, if you go to court, and actually get a reduction, it may come with additional costs, such as going to a traffic school, too.

 

IMO, there's no way to know what an asst. DA will offer. Hopefully, they will drop the points in half, but there's no way to know for sure. Each municipality is different. It's not like you're allowed to specify WHICH lesser charge to take. Just be prepared to go to court and see what's offered. If you don't like it, you'll have to make a decision on whether to take the case to trial.

 

I know I once got that same ticket in Golden when I was 17. I had to go to court to. I also had a clean driving record. I had my hearing in front of the judge and he sentenced me to 3 days in jail. 3 days in jail for not stopping!!!!

I learned my lesson.

 

umm, kaiser, don't pick up the soap.

 

Just have your dad pay the fine and if insurance goes up, have him pay that too. What's the worst that will happen, he'll get you the S4 rather than the 335?

Actually the offense of an incomplete stop doesn’t sound like a big deal. I'm surprised that you didn't get a warning. Like Dave said, talk to the DA and you should be good. In my experience with a speeding ticket in Sheridan, it was dropped to Driving an Impaired Vehicle, zero points with a minimal fee.

 

Where do I cast my vote for Mudd as president of the SW Forum?

 

haha funny, actually i'll be paying whatever the cost of the ticket and whatever increase in insurance the ticket causes, along with half the monthly payment on whatever car i end up getting.

but i'm hoping that i'm as fortunate as you and get it knocked down to a no point ticket, i kinda got a dick cop though considering i may not have stopped completely but i was probably going less than 1mph for about 5 seconds as i checked to see if it was clear to turn(apparently i didn't check for cops...) but i didn't argue with him at all and was nice and polite to him and he looked up my clean driving record and STILL wouldn't give me any kind of warning...

 

only 3 days? i hope i get off as easy as you haha

 

For your reading pleasure...

http://www.milehighz.com/forum/index...ID=149&start=1

 

how clean is your driving record, first offense? if its your first offense you should get a plea bargain right away for something like 2pts defective vehicle and a fine, probaly ~$100-150. if they don't give you a decent plea bargain ask for a pre trail conference, this will give you another chance for a plea bargain before it actually goes to court. my lawyer who used to be the DA for jefferson county let me in on this little secret. the judge can only see a certain number of people in a day, so the DAs will plea bargain the small cases like yours as soon as they can. the court has bigger fish to fry than you not stopping, so if they don't give you a plea bargain and you set up a pre trial conference they will probably get some pressure from the judge to settle it so he/she can move on to more important things. then if they still don't want to (which is very unlikely) and you want to fight it, ask for a jury trial. it will cost a bit more in court fees (like $20-30) but the DA has to spend alot of time picking a jury which costs the city more money than its worth. in the end if you loose you only pay $30 more but you have a better chance of it getting lowered. now personally i cant see it going so far over something so small, and i've had a lot of experience in court lol. just be polite and dress nice and you'll be fine. you still may even get a letter in the mail with a plea bargain. dont worry too much about it, you'll be fine.