Not Guilty
In April, Amanda, Caroline and I drove up to North Haven CT to visit the BustedTees warehouse. On 23rd and Lexington at about 930am, a few minutes after we left he office, I got pulled over for passing a school bus with its stop-blinkers on. There was heavy traffic on 23rd street and about 6 cars got pulled over for this violation within the 20 minutes that we waited for our ticket. It was obviously some kind of NYPD entrapment/fundraiser.
The passing-schoolbus law is very important for child safety, but the spirit of the law is to protect children on empty roads where a car could mow them down coming off the bus and crossing the street. It was not intended for gridlocked city-blocks where cars are going 5mph or stopped.
I found out a month later when the ticket was registered in the DMV system that the fine was $330 with 5 points on my license. This is basically the equivalent of driving 30+ mph over the speed limit on a highway. So I plead not-guilty.
I had my hearing this morning and was found not guilty. It was a very easy process. I left the office at about 10am, went to 19 Rector Street, checked in at 10:30am, met with a judge at 10:39am, and was back at the office before 11. The judge said the officer didn’t provide enough evidence of my infraction. Had he made an acceptable presentation, I would have had the opportunity to cross-examine him. I had a digram and questions prepared and part of me wishes I had had that opportunity.
The moral of the story is fight tickets. They assume you’re going to plead guilty and its difficult for the police to prove the infraction.
