Expert: Philip Sweeting - 8/11/2004

Question
Hi Mr. Sweeting,
Recently I was pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt in the town of Conway, Washington.  Let me explain what happened: Two friends and I were driving over a freeway overpass, when I saw an unmarked police car monitoring cars on the freeway. I made eye contact with the police officer, and kept driving. I was not speeding, and was not committing any other infractions. I was in my dad's car which is rarely used, a 1994 GMC Suburban.  After driving approximately 3/4 of a mile past the police officer, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that he was following me. He flipped on his lights and pulled me over.  He walked up to the window, and the first thing he said was "Why did you just put you seatbelt on?" I had, actually, had it on the whole time.  I let him know this politely, and he replied "I saw the metal seatbelt clip through your window as you drove by, so how could you have had it on?"  He was trying to get me to admit that I had put it on as he was walking up to my car or something.  I really did have it on the whole time though.  I then noticed that the seatbelt was a little loose on the upper shoulder, and said to the officer, "It probably looked like I didn't have it on, because it doesn't look like the shoulder belt is completely retracted." He gave me a disgusted look and took my license and registration back to his car.  20 Minutes later he came up to my window and handed me a $101 dollar ticket, not for failure to wear a seatbelt, but for faulty equipment, a non-traffic violation.  He said it was required in the state of Washington to have a working shoulder belt.  I have heard it used as an excuse before, but I truly believe that the officer was just looking for a reason to give me a ticket since I caught HIM lying about seeing the buckle in the window.
The shoulder belt must have broken that day, because my Dad said he had used the car a week before and the belt was working fine.  Since then, no one has driven the car and my Dad ordered the replacement part.  
I am not sure if you are familiar with the seat belt laws in Washington State, but there has been a recent Supreme Court case in which it was ruled unconstitutional to pull a car over just because a police officer sees that a passenger or driver is not wearing a seatbelt.  I am not sure of the current status of this case.
I chose to have a Mitigation hearing for the ticket, do you think I have a chance at reducing or suspending the ticket?  What would you say to the judge in my position?  Should I have one of the people who was in the car with me come into court with me? I would really appreciate your advice.

Thank you for your time,
Adam


Answer
Not sure of the seatbelt law in your state but in some states it is not permitted to stop someone just because they are not wearing their seatbelt.

If you have the time I would go to court and research the charge. Faulty equipment is generally for lights etc., but I suppose the law could be ambigious enough to include seatbelts. In any event, I would get the seatbelt fixed first and bring the receipt to court. The judge could dismiss the case for a variety of reasons:

The officer may not show up.

The judge may throw it out if the officer was not permitted to stop you for only a seatbelt violation.

The judge may throw it out if you can prove you got it fixed.

As for your friend as a witness it would not hurt but generally a judge will not put much weight on his testimony since he is your friend.

Good luck. Let me know how you make out.