I went up to the Boone County court house in northern Kentucky on Thursday to challenge the "speeding ticket". First of all I had my court date pushed back from 2/17 to 2/24 by phone. I get there and my name isn't on the docket. I go to a service window and the lady tells me that I was in the computer as set to pay the ticket. So I go to another window to get put on the morning docket. Come to find out I was a little late because Boone County is on eastern standard time and Nashville is on central time.
After sitting through some marijauna possession cases and suspended licenses or no insurance case I finally get to see the judge. He asked me how I wanted to plea and I told him I would want him to dismiss the ticket outright for being incorrect, not to mention that the sheriff, not a state trooper, made numerous false statements to me surrounding the traffic stop. I point out to the county attorney representative that the ticket has me as a "white male non-hispanic", which anyone could see as obviously wrong. She responds in a somewhat harsh voice that she would not dismiss the ticket for that reason. Then the judge goes on to say that the police officer can just ammend the ticket later, I find that questionable, and all he really has to do is point me out in the court room as the person he saw and pulled over. The judge then says that the sheriff will come to court to explain how a radar gun works and that this would be hard to refute, right now I do not even believe the sheriff ever measured my speed since his whole story was a lie. The judge made sure to tell me that it would be MY WORD AGAINST HIS, my word against the sheriff's. So it is obvious they just want me to pay or make me go through a bunch or red tape. The judge says that they will set a court date for 2 months from now. I told him I don't want to come back to court for anything since the ticket is false and that I am in school in Nashville and this would be too much trouble. He just stared me in the face and said your only option is to come back or pay. Not to mention that I tried even channel to get them to set a court date without having me have to come all the way back, 250 miles, but that wasn't possible, some more of the red tape meant to force you to pay.
So I leave the court room basically heated, I go back to the window where I had my name added to the docket and ask the lady where do I go to file a complaint against an officer, she looks at my ticket and tells me to go to the Boone County Sheriff's Office 1 mile down the road. I get there and ask the man at the desk where do I go to file a complaint against an officer, he asked for the officer's name, I give the first name and what I could read as the last name and the guy at the desk new the officer in question right away. I have a seat and he brings some executive guy and I step into the man's office. I tell him I am here to file a complaint and pulls out piece of paper as if he as going to take notes. I show him my copy of the ticket. He listens to everything I have to say without writing a single thing, only gesturing with the pen in his hand as if he was writing. After I finish he tells me can't do anything and that this became a court matter once the citation was written and told me I would have to go talk to the county attorney. So after being jerked around I leave to go to the county attorney's office which is across the street from the court I appeared at earlier. I did get a free gun lock from a display in the lobby of the Boone County Sheriff building, even though I do not own a gun.
So I get to the county attorney's office and there is a woman on the phone so she asked a guy from the back room to come up and help me, lets call him Justin. I tell him I came here to get this citation dismissed because I did not deserve it and that on its face it is wrong because it misidentifies me in an unbelievable way. So he sees the mistake and he REALLY AGREES that this is obviously wrong. So just as he turns to go to the back room to consult with whoever is back there he looks at the citation's date which says 2/17, but that day was 2/24, and he asked me right away if I didn't show up for my court date on the 17th. I thought that it was odd he was questioning me about a court date and he can see there is something seriously wrong with the ticket. Anyway, I explain to him that I didn't miss my court date since I had the date pushed back to the 24th. So he leaves to the back room and is back there, out of my view for a few minutes. When he gets back he says he has discussed with whoever, I don't know, that there are 3 things that can happen. I could pay the ticket as is, I told him I am against that. Next was that I could go to TRAFFIC SCHOOL in Kentucky, I told him I live in Nashville and I shouldn't have to go to traffic school for ticket I didn't deserve. Lastly THEY would change the speeding ticket from 80mph in 65mph zone to 75mph in 65mph zone. I thought that last "compromise" was maybe the most ridiculous. I mean he shouldn't even pulled me over and now they are just going to lower the speeding citation until they hit a speed I actually was doing. The sheriff when he was making up his story for pulling me over said two drivers ahead of me where going 75MPH and that he pulled me over because I was going 80MPH plus. So if he wouldn't give tickets for going 75mph that night why in the hell should I agree to pay a ticket that would not even be given to anyone at that time. So I told Justin again that I came to dismiss the ticket, what is the difference between a 80mph and a 75mph ticket, $5 or $10 dollars, to me that is bullshit, I told him I would rather fight the 80mph than agree to pay 75mph ticket for a $10 dollar discount on a ticket I believe I was wrongfully given. He didn't like to hear that because as soon as he handed me my ticket copy back he did an ABOUT FACE and was going back to the back room, I asked him for a business card and with his back still facing me he "strongfully" says NO and goes to the back room. So I ask the lady at the desk who was on the phone if I could get a card from the cardholder on her desk which I could see. She give me one and I ask her the name of the "gentleman" that I was just talking to, she tells me Justin and I leave their door and go sit on a bench across the hallway from them and write on the card Justin's name and the time and date that I was here, not to mention the time and date on the business card of the executive from the Sheriff office which I had gotten.
So I finally leave Boone County and start thinking these people are really scandalous and that no matter where I turned they all just tried to get me to accept their budget making ticket scheme on my neck. On my way back I get the idea that I should stop by the FBI office in Louisville to file a complaint about the practices going on in Boone County but I didn't have the directions and I didn't want to take a 1 or 2 hours extra that would delay my return to Nashville.
Come next week I am definitely going to check back on the FBI, the ACLU and whoever else I can think of, I will be DAMNED if I am going to have to pay some bullshit 150-180 dollar ticket and let them get off easy with no mention to their tactics and practices.
One problem is that I would have to come back on a Wednesday for trial/court and basically all of my Wednesday's after the next 2 weeks will have skill assessments or labs for school.
