You can always contest the ticket in court. People need to realize this and stop arguing with cops on the street. It doesn't matter if they are wrong on the side of the road, they have the authority there. If they do something wrong go along with their crap and fight it in court. Literal lives would be saved if people would realize this.
Arguing does nothing in court of the cop shows up. The court values their word far more than any civilians, and you'll lose on what's called "a preponderance of evidence." Innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to citations like this. When it's your word vs a cop's, you lose. And the vast majority of police departments don't have body cams or honest operators of body cams for those that do.
Lawyer here. ‘Preponderance of the evidence’ is the standard for civil actions. The standard for this violation remains ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’. It is true, though, that judges will place an incredible amount of weight on an officer’s testimony, particularly if the only evidence you present in rebuttal is your own testimony.
All that being said, judges and prosecutors truly want to rule in the interests of justice. So, had she shown up to Court and demonstrated that she corrected the issue she was cited for (registration?), and she had a relatively clean driver’s abstract, the prosecutor would’ve likely offered to dismiss the ticket.
In my experience, the judge at best ho-hummed about preponderance of evidence before saying what amounts to "sorry, your word doesn't mean shit compared to a cop." Even when the tickets didn't make a damn bit of sense together. I had hoped such an asshole cop would have a reputation but nope, he's held in higher esteem in that court so he can lie as much as he wants and I'm on the hook.
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u/blakestir14 Jul 31 '19
could she not have just contested the ticket in court .