My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Washington State, Whatcom County
I had a speeding violation and went through the helpful procedural guide and uploaded form to request discovery. I used registered mail to send a copy of this request for discovery - essentially word for word - which the court said they received when I called them a few weeks ago. I did not receive a response to my request and apparently Whatcom County does not provide discovery for routine speeding infractions anymore.
My hearing was yesterday. The folks with lawyers that went before me easily went through IRLJ 3.1b) to get the tickets dismissed. When it was my turn, I provided him a copy of the discovery request as well as a printout of the tracking history. However, the judge denied my motion to suppress the officer's written statement. I was really shocked at this point and a lot of the things he said after went in one ear and out the other. From what I recall:
1) He said I did not receive a copy of the stamp from the prosecutor's office indicating that they had received the discovery request. This made no sense because I had mailed the forms, which meant there was no way I could have gotten a stamp. He also said that even though I did mail something there was no proof of what I actually mailed. Basically, he said that he did not see anything on the file which corroborated my claim.
2) He said that there were a variety of errors in the form such as how it was addressed but did not elaborate - he said that I should have gotten proper advice from legal counsel who know how to file these. I wouldn't have done this anyways because the ticket was $105 and an attorney would have cost more; also, I don't have car insurance so there would not be any rate increases.
Thankfully my ticket was dismissed because the officer never submitted a statement, but I feel that this could have gone horribly wrong. What did I do wrong here? What should I do in the future so that this doesn't happen again? The entire situation feels kind of crazy.
I had a speeding violation and went through the helpful procedural guide and uploaded form to request discovery. I used registered mail to send a copy of this request for discovery - essentially word for word - which the court said they received when I called them a few weeks ago. I did not receive a response to my request and apparently Whatcom County does not provide discovery for routine speeding infractions anymore.
My hearing was yesterday. The folks with lawyers that went before me easily went through IRLJ 3.1b) to get the tickets dismissed. When it was my turn, I provided him a copy of the discovery request as well as a printout of the tracking history. However, the judge denied my motion to suppress the officer's written statement. I was really shocked at this point and a lot of the things he said after went in one ear and out the other. From what I recall:
1) He said I did not receive a copy of the stamp from the prosecutor's office indicating that they had received the discovery request. This made no sense because I had mailed the forms, which meant there was no way I could have gotten a stamp. He also said that even though I did mail something there was no proof of what I actually mailed. Basically, he said that he did not see anything on the file which corroborated my claim.
2) He said that there were a variety of errors in the form such as how it was addressed but did not elaborate - he said that I should have gotten proper advice from legal counsel who know how to file these. I wouldn't have done this anyways because the ticket was $105 and an attorney would have cost more; also, I don't have car insurance so there would not be any rate increases.
Thankfully my ticket was dismissed because the officer never submitted a statement, but I feel that this could have gone horribly wrong. What did I do wrong here? What should I do in the future so that this doesn't happen again? The entire situation feels kind of crazy.
Motion to Supress Officer's Statement Denied
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire