Expert: Jack Toomey - 11/28/2006

Question
Recently I received a ticket for +15 and I know for a fact I was barely doing +10.  Had a couple questions concerning the methods the police officer used:

1) He did a U-Turn in the middle of traffic without yielding to oncoming traffic and failed to turn on his lights until half way through the maneuver.  To me that doesn't seem legal.. is it?

2) He asked me to step out of the vehicle, then asked me if I was carrying hand grenades, and then asked me to sit in the back of his vehicle.  The first 2 actions I know are fine, but asking me to sit in the back of his car when its a nice day outside doesn't seem like it fits procedure, does it?

3) The radar gun he was using.  If it was set to stationary mode while he was moving?  If it was set to moving mode when I wasn't nearly in front of him (cosine effect)?  Proper use of a radar gun?

Answer
  The fact that the officer didn't turn on his lights or made a U turn has nothing to do with what you are charged with so bringing that up in court is not going to be allowed.

  Some departments teach their officers to request violators to sit in the police cars while others don't.  Again this has nothing to do with the violation that you are charged with.

   The information about the radar gun might have some merit in court if you can qualify yourself as some kind of expert about the usage of radar guns or if you can swear, under oath, that the radar gun was not set to its proper position.

   I know that you are obviously upset about the ticket you received but bringing up what the officer did or didn't do doesn't have a thing to do with the ticket you received and any judge will cut off your testimony if you try to bring it up.