Legal Question in Traffic Law in District of Columbia

Hey, I'm a musician in the Washington, DC area. A couple of weeks ago, I traveled with a band to Fredricksburg, VA to play a show. On the way there, an officer pulled me over from Stafford County. I pulled over promptly, and when the officer approached my car, I cooperated without resistance. The officer told me he pulled me over for speeding, 54 in a 35 to be exact. I simply want to know if this case is worth fighting given the situations that were involved.

1) The officer pulled me over out of his jurisdiction being in Fredricksburg county, when he is a Stafford county officer, not to mention after a question I asked him he replied, "I don't know man, I'm not even in my jurisdiction."

2) The officer in question said he had me on radar doing 54 in a 35. He was traveling in the opposite direction, (meaning he was coming from the jurisdiction he said he didn't have any judgement in), and when I asked the officer to see the evidence he claimed he had, he refused twice.

3) He then said after checking my license and registration, that my license was suspended. I had paperwork in my car that I showed him after he told me this, and he then proceeded to look my name up in the computer by first my social security number, and then my last name, first name. The office didn't find any information saying that my license was indeed suspending but said, "Well I can't find it here in the computer, but I radioed dispatch and they said it was suspended."

4) I did not receive an actual ticket. Don't know if they changed the policy from years ago, but before I would receive a summons and a ticket telling me the price of the ticket, which the sheet of paper he gave me did not have. When I asked the officer how much the ticket was he replied, "I don't know, look it up online."

I don't feel the officer had sufficient evidence to pull me over in the first place, and basically was just making up things to give me a hard time. I am going to fight this, but just wanted to make sure that I wasn't wasting my time in doing so. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you

Julien Lane


Asked on 1/29/11, 12:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Phillip M. Cook Cook Legal Services, LLC

Get a traffic court lawyer ASAP. You are not wasting your time.

Best of luck.******The above is for informational purposes only and does not create an attorney-client privilege.********

Read more
Answered on 1/29/11, 10:34 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Traffic Law questions and answers in District of Columbia