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[gustav]

I feel miserable after getting my first moving violation in my 8 year of zero accident zero ticket driving record.

Today I was dropping off some friends in a small town in upstate New York. At a traffic interaction as I was making a right turn there is a cop car in the opposite direction already waiting there to make a left turn so I naturally stopped for a second to see if the cop wants turn first but it was waiting for me to turn and then followed me for about a mile after I turned. I drove extra careful and did not make any mistakes. After passing 3 stop signs the cop pulled me over saying I was passing the last stop sign at 2 miles an hours for 5 seconds. Then issued a ticket claiming I never stopped and passed the stop sign at 5 miles per hour. I checked the state law it will be 3 points off and stay on my record for 4 years. I don't live there so it will be very difficult for me to appear there in court. On the bright side the fine is only $45 + Surcharge. Please advice if I should just pay up!

Thanks a lot.

[ashly]

If you did not come to a full and complete stop at each stop sign, then you are guilty as charged. Just pay the fine and get on with your life.

[bercnan72]

Pay the fine and move on.

People always like to complain, while saying they've never had a ticket - but the reality is that everyone breaks some kind of traffic law more often then they'd like to believe, and it's only that they've never been caught.
Saw this TV show once, and they put hidden cameras in the cars of average people and left them in there for a week - and a cop went back and viewed the action..... and hilariously the average person had one moving violation PER DAY. Quite eye opening.

[wakeley58]

Unless you have evidence to the contrary the cop will win in court every time. Accept this, pay the fine, and forget about it.

[tate8]

I believe you but I doubt you have a practical way of fighting this. If you were local you could go to court and it is possible the officer would not show up - the stakes are higher for him in that he committed perjury, hard as it may be to prove, in falsifying the ticket. Worse, you would have to go to court twice, once for arraignment to plead not guilty, and once for the trial. When the officer saw the address on your license he changed his story to you, right? He lied and never thought anything of it.

Sometimes the barbarians win. In this case it was a policeman being a tax collector.