Comments on: How I Beat My California Traffic Ticket

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:30:07 +0000

She asked “Have you received any contact from the DA” and “I understand from your motion that you’re unwilling to waive your right to a speedy trial.”

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:56:01 +0000

Is it possible to share some of the questions the judge asked you from your motion? I mean thats if you remember of course.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:00:58 +0000

Any paperwork you send to the court with your case number on it will be added to your file. When I showed up at my trial I said “your honor, before the officer testifies, I have a motion before the court.” The judge said “Yes, I have it here in front of me.” My plan was that once the officer’s testimony was supressed there would be no evidence against me and I would be found not guilty. What happened instead was that after asking a few questions about my motion, the judge said “Ok, I’m going to go ahead and dismiss your case” without explicitly granting the motion.

Note that to do this properly I probably should have put the motion on the law and motion calendar at least three days prior to my trial (see the local rule here), rather than scheduling the motion hearing for the same day as the trial.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:07:18 +0000

I was just wondering what it means to have the discovery request “on record”. All you did was fill out the proof of entry paper and send it in along with the discovery request + cover letter? I’m just trying to decrease my risk of the court saying “they did not receive anything” from me.

Also, when you were in court, did you move to dismiss the case? Or did the judge just dismiss it right away? I’m just assuming this is what you said in court – “I move to dismiss this case in the interest of justice” and then he concurred.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:30:32 +0000

Nelson, Thanks for the comment. I just posted an entry on proof of service — let me know if that helps.

My motion is not 100% guaranteed to work. Under the law, the DA is absolutely 100% required to respond to your discovery request. However, penal code section 1054.5(b) provides the judge with several options for how to deal with non-compliance by the DA. Suppressing evidence or testimony is simply one of those options. If you intend to use this argument at your trial, it is absolutely essential that you look up the relevant section of the penal code (1054).

By: Nelson

Nelson — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:21:21 +0000

Hi Peter, I also received the same ticket as the both of you. I was looking at the chronology of your comments and it has indeed helped me understand a bit more about what happens if you lose the TBWD. I had a couple of questions on your post though.

What did you mean when you said “I filed both documents along with proof of service with the court.” I understood that you filled out both the discovery cover letter, but how do you have proof of service with the court?

Also, “24 December 2009: Filed a motion to suppress the testimony of the citing officer, as the DA never responded to my discovery request.” I got that this is because they did not give you the information you requested. So if i file this motion, even if the CHP officer shows up to the trial day, the case will get thrown out?

PS: Thanks for posting this up!

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:20:15 +0000

I definitely appreciate the comments — please keep it up. If you pick up any special tips or generate any useful documents let me know and I can post them (with your permission).

By: Jay

Jay — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:09:28 +0000

Well I googled around for speeding ticket help and a lot of it was 22350, etc people going 55 in a 45 or red light and didn’t really help me that much. But I did find out about TBWD through it. I exactly put in my citation and looked up speeding ticket/TBWD as keywords and bingo I visited your site.

It so happens that we both got the same citation and you were going over 90 on the freeway. So your timeline is exactly what I was looking for. Didn’t know how old or if the site was still active, but I left a comment anyway and am glad that you responded.

I left another post in your recent blog entry about pleas and would like your input on it. Sorry if I am bothering you let me know and i’ll keep it at a minimum.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:13:04 +0000

It’s not that the certification becomes irrelevant, but rather that you no longer can automatically declare you were caught in a speed trap. If the officer’s credentials are overdue, you can still argue that he’s incompetent to testify as a witness. The equipment calibration information is useful no matter what, as is some of the other info. At the end of the day, my discovery request isn’t gospel — use it as a template and modify it as you see fit.

Out of curiosity, how did you find this site?

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:02:50 +0000

So you still filed for a discovery even though you mention that they were not required for the codes that we both were cited for? 22356(b)?

I guess I can still try to BS my around. Heh.

Thanks for your replies man. I will eventually report back because other people are going to look this up and come across your page.