Anyone have experience with a Reckless Driving summons?

[speeder]

Originally Posted by john70t

A HS friend said he chucked his car keys 50 feet away before the cop got there. Explained the specific code to the officer and was probably a ordinance pia punk. He had a friend drive it home. He wasn't a menace to society at large but some of his associates were.

Another friend's kid was on his 4th or 5th DUI and was looking at hard time with another one. Sad.

Your friend was on private property with no evidence of public street use and out of jurisdiction.
Technicalities, but he still gets a lawyer tax for doing the right thing.

I was reading through this thread and feeling sympathy and empathy for most of the posts until I saw this one. Your friend's kid belongs in prison for several years. My dad was a judge and he used to say, "Anyone can get a DUI. Doesn't mean that you're an alcoholic, bad person, etc. But if you get two DUIs, you are a different type of beast. You are an ass hole" Anyone w a second DUI in his courtroom ran out of luck. They were doing jail time no matter how much they paid for their lawyer.

4 or 5 DUIs?? That means that he has driven drunk probably hundreds of times. Bury that POS under the jail before he kills some innocent people on their way home from church or grocery shopping. Fk him.

[boy83]

Originally Posted by KC911

You paid to be represented in court imo, and this is perpetuated by a bit of "fear mongering" by the industry. Have you EVER known anyone who's gone to jail for speeding... 40 over? Me neither ....just doesn't happen, and if you are somewhat respectable in court (clean record), your outcome happens every single day....but much cheaper...jmho.

I recall there was baseball player who played for the Washington Nationals who was sentenced to spend 7 days in jail for going 110 mph on the beltway.
There was also an automotive writer for Jalopnik who spent 3 nights in jail for going 89 mph in a 55 mph highway in Virginia. And they both were represented by lawyers.

[boy83]

Originally Posted by sugarwood

I think your lawyer sucked if you got 60 hours.

My friend did 108 in a 55 (VA)
and didn't even hire a lawyer,
and walked with 80/55, 6 points, and $900 fine.

A co-worker was clocked 99 in a 55 in VA. He did not get a lawyer. He paid a $700 fine, got his licensce suspended for 6 months, and 6 points.

I got 3 points, a $500 fine, and 60 hours community service. Maybe I could have gotten a better deal but I did not want to take the chance.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by speeder

4 or 5 DUIs?? That means that he has driven drunk probably hundreds of times. Bury that POS under the jail before he kills some innocent people on their way home from church or grocery shopping. Fk him.

They should have thrown the book at him on the second one, imo too. For his own safety as well as others. He kept getting out of jail free with fines and probation and got used to it. Good kid, talented, hard working all the time and all that, but re-occurring on/off female problems with the young sociopath mother of his child who had a temper and liked to sleep around and played him like a fiddle. He just kept going back out of love or some disorder. Besides having a wayward mother and a sum'biatch cowboy father that's where most of his problems were, I suspect. Not a mean bone in his body otherwise from what I could tell. It's like he hated his life and subconsciously wanted to have those choices made for him.

[fintstone]

I will not drive over 100 these days. I would probably lose my job if I had a serious charge. So...I generally try to keep under 80 to prevent the reckless charge. That said, the last ticket I got, I lawyered up. The lawyer said...just pay me court costs and i will get it dropped. He did. He would take hundreds of tickets over each week like that and the city was happy to not try them. Cost me about $35 and the lawyer charged me nothing for his time. Nothing on my record and my insurance did not go up. I will alway lawyer-up for anything the least bit serious in the future. If only a couple of points and $50...I will just pay it.

I did go in to court with young people I know a couple of times and talked to the prosecutor and get the charges thrown out or reduced. They were pretty reasonable (young women attorneys that seemed to take a liking to a well-spoken, pleasant , but forceful, well dressed man (suit) after seeing the scum they usually did. In fact, one young lady thought I was an attorney (and that really helped)...but I told her it was not the case. They seemed pretty overworked and under-appreciated...and much easier to deal with than a judge.

[CJFusco]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I know a Pelican who lost his $7k legal battle over speeding and had to do 24 hrs in jail when it was done.

Out of curiosity, which state was this, and was he a repeat offender?

After meeting with an attorney, I do feel more comfortable about the situation, but still angry with myself... needless to say, I've driven very responsibly since being pulled over.

I don't have my court date until early August (the lawyer filed to have the original date moved... for lawyer reasons).

My lawyer mentioned trying for an "AR" (Accelerated Rehabilitation), which is a sort of self-probation and sounds like a best-case scenario. Failing that, I guess the next best thing is to have it "knocked down" to a speeding charge, but that would likely result in a 30-day license suspension. Still, though, since I could get a permit to drive (only) to and from work, I'd still take that option over the reckless charge.

I know it's fairly unlikely in my situation, considering the circumstances, but the specter of possible jail time still has me worried. I mean, I know it's always a possibility, but considering that I have a lawyer representing me, it's a first offense, I have a fairly clean driving record (a couple of minor speeding infractions, but none recently), no criminal record, and it's Connecticut (known for being somewhat not-strict on speeders), how worried should I be about jail time? I have heard a lot of stories from a lot of people about how their summons got bumped down to something more minor, but there are those outliers like the Pelicanite and the Jalopnik writer...

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by CJFusco

Out of curiosity, which state was this, and was he a repeat offender?

Happened in AZ, but I think he had an out of state license. Even has a brother who's a local cop, who tried unsuccessfully to talk with the arresting officer. It was a complicated and flimsy enough case that I'm very surprised he didn't get a deal. Was pulled over by unmarked car, plain clothes cop, had to call a uniformed officer to make the arrest, but he didn't witness the offense and the other cop could only say he had paced him, etc. Not saying he didn't do it, but $7k of legal fees should have gotten a better result.

[CJFusco]

Sub-question: can police run radar if they are following you, or only while stationary and in a "speed trap"? Because my lawyer mentioned offhand that the cop saying he "clocked me" at 90 suggests that he probably didn't even get me on radar, but just used his speedometer.

[CJFusco]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Happened in AZ, but I think he had an out of state license. Even has a brother who's a local cop, who tried unsuccessfully to talk with the arresting officer. It was a complicated and flimsy enough case that I'm very surprised he didn't get a deal. Was pulled over by unmarked car, plain clothes cop, had to call a uniformed officer to make the arrest, but he didn't witness the offense and the other cop could only say he had paced him, etc. Not saying he didn't do it, but $7k of legal fees should have gotten a better result.

Sounds like a very odd situation, as was the Jalopnik writer's... but from what I hear, in VA where they are SUPER strict against speeders, people were surprised that the Jalopnik writer had to spend three days in jail.

[sammyg2]

I'd be willing to speculate that previous record has a lot to do with it.

[Shadetree930]

Lawyer up.

Was with a group that got pulled over for speeding in a very corrupt mountain county.

Once the good 'ol boys got to jawing at the courthouse and they decided to up the charge to reckless driving, hey ... why not!

Well ... after even further consideration they figger'd they could confiscate them fancy pants cars (8 of em) if they took it to the judge as a drag racing charge.

Long story short, after a lawyer and a lot of legal wranglin' we paid a 5 over fine and lawyer fees. Money well spent.

[WPOZZZ]

Originally Posted by CJFusco

Sub-question: can police run radar if they are following you, or only while stationary and in a "speed trap"? Because my lawyer mentioned offhand that the cop saying he "clocked me" at 90 suggests that he probably didn't even get me on radar, but just used his speedometer.

New radar units do not require the operator to be stationary. Doesn't your ticket state how your speed was determined? If radar/laser it gives the distance. If speedo, it would probably say pacing. Did your attorney look at the ticket?

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by CJFusco

Sounds like a very odd situation, as was the Jalopnik writer's... but from what I hear, in VA where they are SUPER strict against speeders, people were surprised that the Jalopnik writer had to spend three days in jail.

Meh. I lived in VA for 13 years and beat a few tickets in court. And I saw all kinds of shenanigans in court while watching other cases until mine came up. It's a lawyer tax racket and the judges and ADAs see to it that people pay into it.

Did you know about VA's ban on radar detectors? Funny thing is that they know that a state can't ban something regulated by the FCC. So, if you get a radar detector ticket and fight it, it will automatically be dismissed because they don't want someone appealing it to a higher court. So it's basically a voluntary ticket. I had cops stick their heads in my car at least twice while I was obviously running a RD and they said nothing about it.

[MBAtarga]

I worked with Texas Instruments Defense Group in Lewisville TX between '86 and '92 in a group that worked with RF/Microwave Anechoic Test Chambers. One of the engineers in our group got a speeding ticket via RADAR. He went to court and with some razzle/dazzle explanations of radio waves, reflections, etc - called the Cops testimony into question and the judge dismissed the ticket/charges. Cop came up to him afterwards and actually congratulated him on the testimony and evidence.

[72doug2,2S]

Originally Posted by CJFusco

Who ever said that I thought that? I sat down with an attorney this afternoon.

This is the only correct action you can take, lawyering up. The attorney will be able to reduce the speed conviction under "reckless" and you will avoid the seriousness of this charge.

Same thing happened to me in Virginia. Luckily a good friend and also an attorney made the whole thing a non-event.

[LeeH]

Originally Posted by Don Ro

I have no info for you.
.
Here in the Phoenix Valley it's common to drive 80 in the fast lane during non rush hour.
I often hit 90 - 95. Virtually no highway patrol here.
I guess I ought to be more mindful.
.
Good luck.

https://www.abc15.com/news/roads/dps-using-muscle-cars-to-catch-unsuspecting-aggressive-drivers

[Dueller]

CJ...

I read the first page and scanned over the rest of this thread. When I was a prosecutor in Municipal Court, generally speaking if it was a first offense, was not egregious such as 40 over in a school zone, and the person appeared contrite I usually was a mean of all to reducing it to a 19 over speeding ticket. of course this depended largely on the officers attitude as to what your behavior was like during the stop. Similarly, when I did Defense work most cases we're negotiated the same way unless there was clear error on the part of the arresting officer. Occasionally we would have a judge that wanted to be hard-nosed. In 30 years of practicing I never had a single person serve any jail time whether I was pissing into the tent or pissing out of the tent on a speeding ticket related Reckless charge.

That being said, you hired a lawyer, you pay the lawyer, ask him not all of us Yahoo's.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Dueller

CJ...



That being said, you hired a lawyer, you pay the lawyer, ask him not all of us Yahoo's.

That's MISTER yahoo.