For a police officer, traffic court can be fun.
I got to watch a man come in with a dry erase board, rolled up maps, drawings and a stack of photographs. He waited his turn and when his name was called, he carried all his stuff up to the defendant’s table, ready to argue his case. The judge read from some paperwork and said, “Mr. Jones, the officer in your case has been transferred to another work area and is no longer available to appear in this case. Shall we dismiss this case today?”
I could tell by the look on his face, the man didn’t want to dismiss, he wanted to argue his case and win. The judge asked again, “Do you want me to dismiss this case, Mr. Jones?”
He relented and the case was dismissed.
I was there that day because I had written a young man a citation for failing to obey a no left turn sign. He asked for a court date and I received a notice. I showed up to traffic court and waited my turn, we happened to be third on the docket, so we only had to watch these two cases first.
The second case involved a man who had been cited for the same violation, failing to obey a no left turn sign, by an officer from another police agency. The man argued that he had made a safe turn and that he wouldn’t have made the turn at all if he had known that the police officer was hiding around the corner waiting for him to make an illegal turn. He continued to argue that the officer should be in plain sight in order to issue a citation for that violation.
The judge explained that the violation was for failing to obey the sign, not for failing to notice that a police officer was waiting to give him a ticket. Judge found him guilty. Based on this, I thought that my driver might change his plea to guilty and try for traffic school, but no, he still plead not guilty.
I get to testify first, and so I went down my list; on this date at this time, in the city of blah, blah, blah, a sign so posted, saying no left turn, blah, blah, the driver turned left, I stopped him, blah, blah, I wrote a citation. Done.
The judge turned to the driver and asked him for his testimony.
The driver said, “I’m sorry, Your Honor, I just didn’t see the sign.”
Judge. “Like you didn’t see the big, ‘No Parking, Judges Only’ sign when you parked in my space about an hour ago?”
When the other defendants laugh at you, you’ve lost.