My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Vermont
Hello, Hopefully this is not to much info for one post but here goes…. I am having a de novo jury trial in a few weeks for civil traffic tickets one for counterfeit inspection sticker and one for not having a valid inspection sticker in Vermont.
History: I was called by a friend to help her with her van the head gasket had went and I offered to limp it to her house while she drove my car. We swapped cars and I took off with her van loaded with kids. A few mins later I was pulled over the officer walked to the car and said oh I didn’t see your inspection sticker (its an older toyota van long long windshield hard to really see sticker) but its seems you have one so your ok. He then started to head back to his car but after a few steps returned to ask for my drivers info etc as well as ask for the VIN from the inspection sticker which I provided as he could not see it from the outside. Some 20mins of screaming kids later he returned to demand I peel off the sticker which I did he then gave me the tickets and I left. At the first hearing I claimed that the Officer had abandoned the stop by starting to walk away and had no probable cause after that point to continue questioning me I cited a few state cases as well as the recent SCOUTS case Rodriguez v. U.S. in response and for the first time the officer then falsely claimed he saw a missing corner of the sticker and that gave him cause to inquire further. I replied by showing photos of the van window where the corner of the sticker was still attatched and informed the court that he was being untruthful as the sticker was not sowing any tears until he had me tear it off. The court did not much care and I was found guilty my appeal de novo followed.
At the first court date the judge almost tossed the case as the State had not submitted an affidavit from the officer but upon pleas from the state he gave them 2 weeks to provide one which he did.
The officers affidavit only specifically lists the counterfeiting by statute but only refers to the invalid sticker charge by referencing the the original ticket number. Additionally the affidavit states that the offense occurred on a different road over a mile away from the location he wrote on the tickets. The affidavit version is correct the tickets are not.
Questions:
1. Is there any sort of double jeopardy or due process claim for the inspection ticket as it seems to me to be a lessor included of the counterfeit ticket? As you would have to be driving with an invalid sticker to have a counterfeit one IMHO.
2. Is the probable cause issue worth pursuing.
3. Could I move to dismiss the invalid sticker charge due to lack of info on the affidavit?
4. Any action possible on the wrong location listed on the tickets?
5.. Any other ideas? Unfortunately the counterfeit charge comes with a 1000 dollar fine and 2 month suspension.
Hello, Hopefully this is not to much info for one post but here goes…. I am having a de novo jury trial in a few weeks for civil traffic tickets one for counterfeit inspection sticker and one for not having a valid inspection sticker in Vermont.
History: I was called by a friend to help her with her van the head gasket had went and I offered to limp it to her house while she drove my car. We swapped cars and I took off with her van loaded with kids. A few mins later I was pulled over the officer walked to the car and said oh I didn’t see your inspection sticker (its an older toyota van long long windshield hard to really see sticker) but its seems you have one so your ok. He then started to head back to his car but after a few steps returned to ask for my drivers info etc as well as ask for the VIN from the inspection sticker which I provided as he could not see it from the outside. Some 20mins of screaming kids later he returned to demand I peel off the sticker which I did he then gave me the tickets and I left. At the first hearing I claimed that the Officer had abandoned the stop by starting to walk away and had no probable cause after that point to continue questioning me I cited a few state cases as well as the recent SCOUTS case Rodriguez v. U.S. in response and for the first time the officer then falsely claimed he saw a missing corner of the sticker and that gave him cause to inquire further. I replied by showing photos of the van window where the corner of the sticker was still attatched and informed the court that he was being untruthful as the sticker was not sowing any tears until he had me tear it off. The court did not much care and I was found guilty my appeal de novo followed.
At the first court date the judge almost tossed the case as the State had not submitted an affidavit from the officer but upon pleas from the state he gave them 2 weeks to provide one which he did.
The officers affidavit only specifically lists the counterfeiting by statute but only refers to the invalid sticker charge by referencing the the original ticket number. Additionally the affidavit states that the offense occurred on a different road over a mile away from the location he wrote on the tickets. The affidavit version is correct the tickets are not.
Questions:
1. Is there any sort of double jeopardy or due process claim for the inspection ticket as it seems to me to be a lessor included of the counterfeit ticket? As you would have to be driving with an invalid sticker to have a counterfeit one IMHO.
2. Is the probable cause issue worth pursuing.
3. Could I move to dismiss the invalid sticker charge due to lack of info on the affidavit?
4. Any action possible on the wrong location listed on the tickets?
5.. Any other ideas? Unfortunately the counterfeit charge comes with a 1000 dollar fine and 2 month suspension.
Other Violations: Inspection Tickets and Defense
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