need advise from you guys.

Earlier today, I was driving on a major street w/ 40 mile speed limit. I was speeding (yes, guilty.) at 75 or so and a Mercedez CLK speed past me. A cop pulled both of us over and before I knew it or had a chance to say anything, I had a ticket for street racing & they impounded my car for 30 days. I tried to explain to the cop what happend but he would not hear of it saying that he heard tire squeel and smelled burned rubber at the stop light before, and that we were speeding alone side by side at 90 MPH. Unless I can proof otherwise to the judge, I am street racing. * I did'nt think explaining how an Carrera 4 would be impossible to peel out would help. * I did'nt think explaining how there is no way a CLK would pass me if I was racing would help. So now I have an ******* cop on a mission saying I am street racing and my car is at a tow yard for 30 days....... Any of you have any idea how I should handle this.... I am lost. Peter Liao

Peter...that sucks. Looks like you got the shaft from this cop. I can't offer any advise, but I hope others will be able to. Jake

That's a bummer. Here's what I would do: 1) Go out and get pissed and drown out your sorrows. 2) Get a lwayer. Hope it all works out for you in the end.

I was framed I tell ya, I was framed. Geez. This is the first time that I got a ticket for something I did'nt do and it sucks... Peter Liao

Anybody know a good traffic lawyer in L.A.? Peter

Damn Peter! That's a really bad incident. I'll ask aroud for traffic lawyers. Get the best one possible: he might be expensive, but will save you money in the end becuse of what the insurance company willl do to your rates.

UUUGGGHHHH::: Got my GT3 seats in and my sport techno wheels and a hardtop should be arriving in 2 days. AND NO CAR TO PUT THEM ON...... This sucks. Peter Liao

Was this a state trooper or a local town cop? Either way get a very good lawyer, if he was a local get a local lawyer. This is important because the local guys all work with each other and the judges. If you roll in to a local court house with a "big city" lawyer you'll have no chance. Sometimes, not always and no one is going to admit it, but sometimes local cops love pulling over p-cars because you can afford a decent lawyer and maybe the cop gets an early christmas bonus if you know what I mean.

please explain more of the facts surrounding your situation. Was the cop pacing you? Did you get caught by radar/laser? I took this drivers improvement class (for a stupid 75 on a 55 in VA is reckless and you have to go to agression management class) and they told us different things you can do to prove that you were not speeding or that you were not racing. however, each scenario is different and I need to know more of what happened before I can tell you what IMHO would be the best course of action. Being that I don't read too many posts, you can either email me at [email removed] or you can read what I write hereafter. If you were pulled over by being paced, then contrarily to common belief you should interrogate the officer during trial. This means that you should ask him questions like : approximately how long were you following me. If he says the standard bull****... 2 miles, you should pull out a map and say, so from here to here? There are legal restrictions on how long a cop has to follow you before he can give you a speeding ticket for pacing you. The restrictions (to my recollection) are both time and distance. i.e. "i paced him for 4 minutes and 2 miles). (Each jurisdiction is different. BTW: traffic attorneys are good but when you give him this information he can help you more.) If he pulls that crap out on you calculate the time he would have traveled in 4 minutes ... four minutes at 90 miles an hour is 6 miles. You can then say... hm... don't you mean six miles? and put him on the spot. Judges and attorneys like logical reasoning and when you discredit your opponent using facts and not opinion they may be swayed more easily. Take pictures of where you were and say that you got on at this exit and you got pulled over at this point. Also, tell the judge stuff like, "I drive this road to and from work every single day your honor. I have been driving it for over 10 years now." I know this road like the back of my hand. As such, I know that it is impossible to be travelling this road at 90 miles an hour at this time (i.e. 6pm) due to traffic and due blah blah... Use additional facts and logical reasoning to prove that it was impossible for you to be at that speed given the circumstances. If the officer pulled you over using radar, pull out a map and pictures and ask him where he was standing when he clocked you. You can ask him how long it takes for him to pull out his radar gun and point it at you or if it was positioned already how long it takes him to look at your car and then look at the radar. This should be approximately 4-6 seconds for him to turn his head and look at your car. Then calculate the time it would have taken him to catch up to you at that speed. if you were going 90mph it would take him atleast 5-10 minutes going 100mph at wot. show him where he pulled you over and prove to him that it was impossible with the time it took him to look at the radar and time to catch up to you that you were going that fast. there are also other things you can do such as ask him how you and that guy were both in his "line of site" for radar purposes and tell the judge that it was impossible for him to determine if you were the culprit or if the benz was. the radar can only clock one car in the line of site and the burden shifts to him to prove that it was you and not the other party. anyways, I gotta get back to work, but like I said if you have other questions, I can probably think of some other arguments when my head is clear. i'm half asleep right now~~~

sorry to hear it! i've gotten tickets three times so far in my p-car for things i didn't do! the last one, back in july, i had my cruise set on 69 in the right lane on a highway up here in boston where the speed limit was 65. a cop came up behind me and said i was doing 80-85, then when he came back to give me the ticket he said i was doing "at least 90". well, normally i might drive those speeds, but i had just got off a red eye from seattle and hadn't slept in 2 days so i was exhausted and not going to drive fast! i missed paying some court cost thing before my court date and ended up getting found responsible! pissed me off all to hell. a couple weeks ago i got pulled over by a state trooper because he said i was "weaving in and out of traffic" and speeding. he asked me how fast i was going and i said 65. he said the speed limit was 55. i told him no, it was 65, and didn't change to 55 until right up ahead, and pointed to the sign where it changed over. he looked kind of stupid for a second and then said a couple of times, "you know, even a porsche can flip over. be more careful when you're driving." i wanted to laugh at him for thinking that i'm going to flip my p-car driving pretty slowly and changing lanes at 65 mph. basically my experience with cops around boston is that they'll pull me over for nothing and write me a ticket for even less. i have to go to driver retraining before march or they'll suspend my license for getting 5 tickets in the last year and a half. i can't wait to see how they're going to "retrain" me to be a better driver...

Teflon_Jones.... I would change your handle. HAHA, just kidding that sucks dude, I have to do the same thing next months, 12 points on my license.

well, basicly, I stoped at a light. Did'nt notice who was around me. I left the light at about half throttle and about .3 miles later, the clk passed me on my right and almost right after he passed me, I slowed down( there is a light turning red .1 miles up ahead.) after I slowed to a stop, the motorcycle cop pulled both of us over. The cop made a couple of comments: 1. we were burning out our tires at the light. 2. we were speeding at 90 mph( he did'nt write that on the ticket however, but he probably wrote it down on the police report. ) 3. no radar, no laser, no pacing. The whole distance between the lights were 0.4 miles, I was'nt paying attention to my speedometer, but I could swear that I was'nt going over 80. I went back and took a video of the ground with no burn out marks at the first light. I am not sure about this one, but should I bring up the fact that If I was "Street Racing" I would've been well into triple digit speeds in half of that distance. Any ideas to help me help the attorney would be greatly appreciated. Peter K Liao

Here's my 2 penny worth (I am no lawayer): 1) you have a picture/video of the ground which shows clearly you were not burning rubber as he said. Does the policeman have a picture to prove otherwise? 2) he has no device (laser, radar etc) to prove the speed he said you were doing thus it is only his "assumed speed based on a guestimate". There is no proof in that. 3) It won't be hard to convince the judge that your Porsche 911 could beat the pants off the CLK (The judge will very likely know that your car is extremely fast, but he probably won't know the performance of the CLK) but when the policeman pulled you over, the CLK was ahead of you. So if you were racing how is that possible. 4) It won't be hard to convince the judge that in 0.4 miles, had you wanted to race, you would have been doing well into 150 mph and it would have been unlikely even the police man could have cought you. Seriously, this proves you were not racing. I think the plea you have to take is that the policeman was mistaken by the circumstances. He heard screetching tyres at the lights. It wasn't you but the CLK. But when he saw the CLK overtake you he "assumed" you were both racing. However what really happened is that you were the incocent driver "who just happens to be driving the super car" and the CLK was the guilty driver. The policeman seeing the Porsche "read dream-car,fast,race,poser,ricer (dare I say it)" and so he assumed you were racing and so made a mistaken judgement against you. If you have a good driving history surely that would help too.

Scouser: 1. nope. just his word that he heard tires screeching and smell tire burning. 3. thought of that, but need lawyers opinion if I should bring that up at trial. I have a clean driving record and a clean criminal record. Hope that'll help out too. It did'nt mean crap to the watch commander at the sheriff station when I went to plead for a impound hearing( he would'nt even see me and had a sheriff try to tell me that the 30 days is mandatory even when it's not according to the vehicle codes in CA) Peter Peter

Are you kidding me? What speed did he put down on the ticket? If you get a decent lawyer you shouldn't have a problem.

The problem is you've been ticketed for street racing. Many states have either introduced new laws or stiffened the penalties for this (as you're finding out). If you don't have a lawyer GET ONE NOW. On a scale, low severity to high: jaywalking...failure to obey a traffic sign....simple speeding....very high speed/school zone....reckless driving...DWI....Street racing. Check the law, it may only require the officer's opinion for you to be convicted of racing - and a conviction could get you jail time and a suspended license. It's not usually considered a driving conviction either, it can be a serious misdemeanor or felony. The good news for you is that the case seems shaky. Here's what you're hoping for: your lawyer can talk to the prosecutor and bargain it down to something less like "exhibition of speed" or speeding or "failure to obey...". Good luck. C.

Get a lawyer now! If you're sick you don't medicate yourself. You go to the doctor. If you get a traffic ticket, you get a lawyer. I'm sick of a small number of traffic cops harassment on people. The few of them with the wrong concept of their duties, are guilty of the general negative attitude of people for all of them. I don't have points, however I got tickets multiple times. I went to court for each one of them with a lawyer. Some police officers have common sense to enforce the law, some other cops have education/attitude/social issues. Because of the later, you have to get a lawyer ALWAYS. Insurance companies donate equipments to Cops --> Cops issue tickets --> People pay fines to avoid the court hassle --> People get points --> People pay higher insurance. It's all about money.

nice little conspiracy theory you have there nj-gt. you are right... get an attorney to represent you, but to be sure make sure that you give him something to work with. lawyers love it when you have a plan because it takes away time that they have to spend thinking about it. also it sparks ideas. Needless to say, that in your situation (I'm not a traffic lawyer btw) I would think that you should definitely not say that you were speeding. If in court, the judge asks you how fast do you think you were driving, just say within speed limits. The officer has no evidence to the contrary either way. Also, you should not raise the issue that "if you were speeding..." that is always a trap. Tell/show the judge the two pieces of evidence you have conferred upon us. i.e. the video footage, and the fact that your vehicle is 4wd and that even the manufacturer claims that it is impossible for your car to "peel out." Also tell the judge that if anything the supposed opponent (slk) was the violator in that he clearly passed you and that it would be impossible for the officer to tell your speed if he were not using pace, radar, laser, especially when both cars are going at different speeds (i.e. the slk passed you). Say that though it may have appeared that you were speeding, that illusion was due to the slk passing you at high speeds on not because you were racing or speeding. Show him your driving record. Then reiterate that you have NEVER recieved a violation, and this is because you have NEVER raced, nor have you ever felt the NEED to race. For you, a car is a piece of transportation equipment that takes you from point A to point B.... in style~~~ Also, in terms of the .4 miles, calculate that your car would have take 100+ feet to stop from 80-90mph. calculate the acceleration rate of your vehicle (how many feet would it take to go that fast) etc.... see what te numbers look like and then present them to your attorney. honestly, you don't want to have this on your record. it may even be a misdemeanor in your state which will stay on your record. hope this helps... any more questions, feel free to email me for my opinion. I have not provided this information as legal advice and his advice is purely my own personal opinion.

PeterC4C, I seem to remember reading about this Guy somewhere. Apparently, he is a full on traffic lawyer. What have you got to lose ecxcept the cost of a call? GOOD LUCK!! http://www.stantheradarman.com/ Regards, Steve B

I am no lawyer, but I'll offer how I would approach this - if it helps: 1) This is a serious charge - get a lawyer 2) Show up at court looking your best - you are not a street racing kid and the judge needs to see it 3) I don't think the "my C4 can't spin its wheels says anything" unless you can discredit the cop by using it. By this I mean, if you can directly question him in the courtroom and he says it was certainly you and not the CLK burning rubber, then bring it up shed doubt on his testimony. If he says it was one of you, then force him to admit he doesn't know if it was you or the CLK and move on. Ultimately, could you have been street racing without squealing your tires at the light - answer yes. You not squealing your tires *proves* nothing. 4) I like the idea of measurements and logical arguments to discredit the speed figure. Get exact measurements of distance and ask for help if your math is a little rusty (I'm sure anyone here would be willing to work with you). 5) I'm not completely sure on this, but I beleive cops in some states recieve "speed training" in the academy where they learn to look at cars going by and call there mph within 5mph. This is so it will hold up in court without radar or pacing. Check to see if your state has this - if your cop took the class and passed, I'd assume your mountain just got a little steeper to climb. 6) Good luck

Steve: That's funny, you're not the first to recommand this guy. I have talk to him, and he is a very informative guy. However, he specialize in radars and speedtraps. He did refer me to an associate who spend about 40 min on the phone answering my every question. http://www.ellison-law.com/ I am convinced after speaking to about 5 lawyers that he is the most capable. Thanks, Peter Liao

BSC: 1) This is a serious charge - get a lawyer Done 3) I don't think the "my C4 can't spin its wheels says anything" unless you can discredit the cop by using it. By this I mean, if you can directly question him in the courtroom and he says it was certainly you and not the CLK burning rubber, then bring it up shed doubt on his testimony. If he says it was one of you, then force him to admit he doesn't know if it was you or the CLK and move on. Ultimately, could you have been street racing without squealing your tires at the light - answer yes. You not squealing your tires *proves* nothing. Yes, but it could be a tool in negotiating with the DA if I can discredit the police report. 5) I'm not completely sure on this, but I beleive cops in some states recieve "speed training" in the academy where they learn to look at cars going by and call there mph within 5mph. This is so it will hold up in court without radar or pacing. Check to see if your state has this - if your cop took the class and passed, I'd assume your mountain just got a little steeper to climb. Not sure about this one, but I do know that all L.A. Sheriff has to spend their first 2-3 years serving in the LA county jail system. No wonder they treat everyone like a criminal. Thanks everyone for their comment. Every little thing helps. Peter