Expert: Robin Sexton - 6/13/2008

Question
I was in court today attempting to defend against a "driving while on a cell phone" case. There seams to be no way to get out of this. Explaining to the prosecutor, the police officer, and the Judge seamed to have no affect. It was essentially my word against his. Any advice on how to defend against this? Further the police officer before we went "trial" threatened to write more tickets violations that i had committed during the night in question. This is of course not ethical, but is it legal? Can he do this?

Answer
Kevin,

Most traffic violations are essentially the police officers word against the driver. The question for the judge is who is more credible, not an easy situation.  The primary basis for the determination is that the officer would not have a reason to make up the violation.  Could the officer be wrong, of course.  However proving that is not easy.  Short of other witnesses, producing your cell phone bill showing you were not on the phone I see no other easy alternative.

I agree threatening to write additional citations for exercising your right to the courts is unethical and unprofessional.  Technically the officer can write additional citation based on his observations.  One common aspect is when officer gives a break to someone for speeding and then the person contests the ticket in court the officer sometimes amends the ticket to the original clocked speed. That I don't belive is unethical.

Hope this helped


Robin