I’m new to the forum and I am 18 years old. I am a low-income student attending community college. I have previously gotten the same citation for speed contest not too long ago on February 18, 2010. My court case for that is not over yet. It’s still ongoing and I am at the final stages for that case which is hopefully going to end on June 28, 2010. On that very day of February 18, 2010, I have also gotten a citation for speeding, doing 68mph in a 35mph zone. Yes, this one is really bad.

Yesterday, I was in the city of San Gabriel, CA. Me and my cousin (my cousin drove his own car) were on our way to a tea place not too far north. I spot a modded 2003-2007 Honda Accord, thought nothing of it. I normally strolled by him on the right. He switched lanes and decides to tailgate me and when we finally come to a complete stop during a red light, he decides to rev his car several times at me. So then when the light turns green, I take off a bit to get away from him and I accelerated to about 40mph (not under full throttle, my tires weren’t spinning or peeling out). The posted limit was 35mph so I was in the safe zone. Then the guy in the Accord attempts to chase me down and starts to rev it again. At this time, I am in the left lane and he is right behind me. I continue going at a constant speed of 40mph and he is still right on my rear. The driver of the Accord seems arritated and swings his car to the right and passes me and then cuts right back in front of me in my lane. I flash my high beams and hazard lights to tell the guy that I don’t want any trouble and to get off my rear. I don’t even know the guy. I guess that’s when the cops saw that and decided it was time to pull me over.

When the officer pulls me over, he drives his car side by side with me, and tells me to go chase down my “friend”. I was just in shock.. I thought it was the officer’s job to go hunt and chase down the other driver. I did what I was told, but I went slow so I made sure I didn’t break another law while doing it (the cops were following right behind me as I was searching for the Accord). But, it was too late, the Accord got away and the officer decides to just pull me over. Two other patrol cars come up. They didn’t even bother with the Accord. It seemed like as long as they caught one person, they were fine with it. They put in no effort to go and search for the Accord.

The usual went down. They asked for my license and registration. I told them that I have been cited for the same thing and I attempted to show them my ongoing ticket. The officer (who was a young white male) had some bad attitude. He simply said “I don’t care about your other ticket.” So I went on and gave him my documents. The officer said he was going to cite me for speed contest. He said me and the other guy were lined up and we took off at the same time when there was not even ONCE a time when we got the chance to even line up at a stop or light. There was alot of traffic on the road at the time and the Accord was pretty much in front of me the whole time. The officer also claimed that I was doing 55mph in a 35mph zone but I knew he was bluffing. I was checking my spedometer constantly so I wouldn’t go over the limit no matter how much the Accord wanted to pressure me into racing him. The officer did not even radar me, and if he did, he didn’t show me his radar gun. Lastly, he didn’t even cite me for speeding on the ticket, so I know he was just saying that so I could agree to speeding so that he could cite me for it.

The officers didn’t impount my car cause my sister had a valid driver’s license and she drove the car home. But I know this is unfair. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was simply caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The hazardous lights was what caught the cops attention (cause I guess he was already watching what we were doing by then). But, it was just a signal to the other driver to slow down and to get off of my rear. I guess the officer’s first intention was that I wanted the guy in the Accord to line up with me.

Keep in mind, my cousin who has been following me the whole way to our destination, has seen the whole thing happen. His girlfriend was also in the car. My sister and my other cousin was in my car too. So I pretty much have lots of witnesses.

So what do you guys think of this? I know it’s pretty bad already. For my first case.. they are looking to drop the misdemeanor into an infraction. I already hired a lawyer for that case. But, how am I gonna fork out another 3k for another lawyer? I know I won’t win this case without a lawyer. But what are other alternatives that I can do to lessen the charge? What are my chances of getting a job? And how many points on my record am I looking at?

Here’s some additional information:

- Weather was cold
- Road was dry
- Traffic was medium

My life is such at a standstill..

My brother’s 17 year old girlfriend is pregnant. She wants to start living with us, but her mom is against it. My brother is afraid that her mother will call the cops if she starts living with my parents.

Now that she is pregnant is she of “legal” age to make her own decsions?

Hello. I stayed at a hotel at a fairly large casino this past weekend only to have the night ruined. Me and a couple friends went out and before long one of the girls was causing problems. She wasn’t planning on staying but had a few things of hers that she had left in my room. She told me to give her a key and she would go get them and leave and i refused. I told her that I would go with her but she said she would wait. later that night she threatened to jut go to the hotel front desk and get her own key. This is where I lied and told her I had already told the front desk to be sure to not give a key to anyone else, as I thought her to be a little psychotic at this point. Come to find out, I really should have called the front desk to tell them this but who thinks that a hotel would just give your key out to anybody? So when we got back to our hotel/casino, we were gambling and all kind of split up..When I went up to my hotel room, neither of the two keys I was given at checkin worked, so I pulled out my cell phone and tried calling the front desk. I was put on hold for quite some time, mind you its like 230 am at this point and I just wanted to go to sleep. While on hold with the front desk, I heard someone talking in my room! And then before long, my hotel room door was opening. It was this crazy girl. Needless to say, I freaked out. It scared the crap out of me, for one, that someone was in my room! About this time, someone from the front desk finally answered, and I told them we needed someone at my room asap! I went in and immediatelly started going through my things to make sure she didnt steale anything. At first, she would not leave, and then I shut the door and told her she wasn’t going to leave until whoever from the front desk came up there. She then called the police, telling them I assaulted her and wouldn’t let her leave. The hotel sent security up there, just to tell me “You’ll have to take this up with the front desk”, and leave! Not even asking me if I was okay, if anything was stolen, or escorting her out! Before long the cops showed up, where she proceeded to lie and say that she had ‘bruises’ on her from me hitting her..like I told the cops I have a torn tendon so I couldn’t really hit her. If anything, she kicked me, I had a big bruise automatically on my knee. I’m not one to get the police involved though, stupid waste of their time. Anyway, my question is should I call an attorney? I’ve taken this up with the front desk manager, and his manager, and they both laughed it off. Saying their employee didnt do anything wrong. Not only are they not concerned, I didnt so much as get an apology or a complimentary nights stay, nothing. My issue here is that, as far as I am concerned, if anything goes on with the cops ie. if i have to go to court or whatnot, it’s their responsibility. Yes?
Thank you for your help.

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the cops told son that if he doesn’t help them with this they will charge him with endangering children(he sold a bags of weed to friends under 18), son is 18 they said they have text messages to prove, i have ur 20$ bag.. .etc. they want him to go to this guy and continue to buy pot like he has been doing. for like 6 more times. they said if he don’t do this he is going to be arrested. they said these kids all told them…my son sold them pot. they have no pot on my son, only hear say. we are afraid if he don’t do this they will arrest him. do the cops have a case to arrest son

What kind of penalty am I facing.. the Larceny was a 40$ pair of earrings. The store said they wouldnt press charges, but I didnt have ID on me so they said they had to call the cops, then the store rep told them that they didnt wanna press charges, but the cops arrested me because they said I’d never learn if I didnt get a record. Any help?

I am 20. I was visiting friends from where I used to go to school. They didnt really verify my information… they had me on camera.. but they had a secret shopper person follow me around they store they said I was suspicious. I confessed. I know I did it, and I cooperated every step of the way.

I also signed a wavier of charges from the store as long as I agreed to obey the no trespassing form. I signed with a witness rep from the store saying they wouldnt press charges. But then they said since I didnt have my ID on me that they had to call the cops. Its my first offense and Im really scared Im gonna have to do jail time for this.

I have another question, I received a letter from the store saying that when i pay an 150.00$ fine they will have no further civil remedy from this event. What does that mean?
I have purchased a plane ticket to NC with the help of a friend, and am planning to go to court. I am now aware that I have to be appointed a public defender by the court when I go, not before. As I stated before I and the store signed a contract with the store saying they would not press charges. I need advice. Please help me.

getting a copy of your traffic ticket from the traffic stop is pretty easy,but what about the the camara footage from the cops cruiser,or to find out if it had a camara in it,how do you get this info.

Okay, So I am 20 years old, and on a Friday night went out to a 18 & over club. There is also a bar inside this club. After about an hour there, I decided I wanted to go home, and walked toward the bar door ( which security stands there) and started waving to my friend to come out of the bar to go home. The security guard told me to step back, which i did, and i continued to try and get my friend out of the bar. The security flipped out on my and told me i have to leave because i wasn’t following his orders. I said ok. Another security guard grabbed me and started pushing me until i got to the door, then shoved me out and slammed me against a car and called the cops. I have also heard of several incidents where the security have handled people very badly. I got arrested for disorderly conduct, and mip/mic, which the cops did NOT give a PBT test. Is that legal to charge me if they have no proof? I also have bruises all over my arms. What should I do?

I was driving a 10′ U-Haul truck, and was waiting on a turn lane to take a left turn.
from the opposite direction a pick-up truck was coming and had its left turn signal ON, and was moving towards HIS turn lane, (he had like one of his tires on the turn lane which i did not mention in my report to the cops – i had a co-passenger who told me this only after the cops gave me a ticket), i moved a little forward and the pickup truck came ahead and slammed into the front of my truck on the right side…and I have a ticket with failure to yield right of way on left turn.

Cops said I should be 100% sure that the lane is sure before taking the left turn. I called up some lawyers and they say they can give me a no-point violation, but the fee are exorbitant and like 600$ minimum apart from the fine and court fee. I am a graduate student and cant afford this. So I need some advice…how can i argue myself so as to get no-points?

Thanks in Advance
-Bill

My boyfriend is an alcoholic and he got drank 3 days ago. he broke the wall and a chair to release his anger when he was drank. However, he still tried to protect me for keeping me a distance from him. First, he locked himself in the bedroom to keep drinking and kept me in the living room. When he came out of the bedroom to stay in the living room. He asked me to go into the bedroom. At night, I was on bed and tried to get some rest but he laid on the floor at the end of the bed screaming of the whole body was so painful and asked God to help him. I got up and tried to check with him to see whether I could help him with anything. He pushed me away and I was off balance and fell on the mattress since the back of my knees was so close to the mattress. He pushed me and my knees bent and I fell on the edge of the mattress. My body then slipped off the mattress and my head landed on the heater next to the bed at the bottom of the wall. I was bleeding but I knew it wasn’t serious hurt. After my boyfriend noticed that I was bleeding, he put a towel on my head and asked me to press it to stop the bleeding. He cried and apologized to me. He held me tight the whole night to make sure I was okay. He kept asking me whether I needed an ambulance. I said I didn’t want to because I cannot afford it. He called his mom but no answer and he called his sister to ask for help. She said that she would call the cops but I convinced her that this is not helping my boyfriend to stop drinking to put him in jail. The next morning when he got up, he was still drank and went so crazy that kept screaming loud of the body pain. I was scared and didn’t know what to do. I ran out of the apartment and called his mom to come over. His mom came with his step dad and she called the cops to report the incidence. He got arrested and his court date is in 2 days. I found out from the district attroney that he was put into a restraining order for not contacting me. I was shock and I really didn’t want it to happen. We both love each other. With my comfort and partnership with him, he started to try to stop drinking for 2 months already but he just started again 3 days ago that I could not understand what triggered his alcohol craving. He didn’t really push me to hurt me. It was an accident. Pls can anyone help me of how to get the judge to relief the restraining order. My boyfriend will be so depressed if he cannot stay with me. It can only put him in a stressful situation that is not helping him to stop drinking. He has no place to stay except with me. He is unemployed and no money at all. His mom seems not going to help him. I am so frustrated and I want to do something on the court date to ask the judge to relief the restraining order but don’t know what is the right step to do. pls can someone help me. It’s urgent because I only have 2 days to prepare. Thanks in advance for any useful advice.

quieter

A couple days ago i was being a dumb ass and accidentally fired a weapon through my window. Yeah, pretty retarded. But i started feeling less retarded as i saw how the cops handled the situation… when they arrived they impressed me into signing a search waiver, telling me that i would be worse off if i didn’t when i asked if i had the right not to, they were doing their best to take advantage of my youth and scare the sh** out of me (not to mention they hadn’t read my Miranda rights to me yet, which i notice as a booboo, especially in light of my feeling impressed upon.) After searching my apartment and finding weed and scales and other random paraphernalia they then arrested and cuffed me, took my phone and started reading text messages and answering calls, then taking me to the station for processing. It was only at this point, on the way to the police station and already cuffed, when the cop driving asked me if the other cop had forgotten to read me my rights or not, when i said “no” he then proceeded to do so. The next day after getting bailed out i came to find that the cops had been fabricating almost completely bull-hockey stories about how i was acting during the arrest and telling other cops and my friends parents. The two police officers also managed to fabricate several stories that i supposedly told them about my best friend and told his parents, which is now causing him great public suffering and embarrassment for things which never happened. They also told many people that i had things in my apartment which were certainly not there and which they have absolutely no proof of. I was wondering about the different rules concerning a couple cops who committed what appears to me as a a couple serious cases of slander, misuse of Miranda reading, and impressment in light of that very misuse. This is also a first offense which may help or not.

Thank you for your time, i anxious to hear about whether i’m in luck or not…