I was in my car with two friends the evening of 4/19, My licence was
recently suspended for an underage drinking charge but I dedided to
drive to a convience store. We parked at a local lake to relax and as
soon as I turned my lights off a cop pulled up. He searched me, and
questioned everyone to the fullest extent. We were all polite. I
refused to let him search my car.
My question is: He never wrote a citation, and never explained what
happened next, he just stated that I could not drive back. Does this
mean that I will still be cited for driving on a suspended licence ?
Can I fight this, and what is the best approach ? |
Request for Question Clarification by
weisstho-ga
on
24 Apr 2006 12:10 PDT
Hello!
The key here is that you MUST be served with some notice that you
violated the law. Go down to the courthouse, see the criminal division
clerk of the court and ask to see your file. They may ask if you have
a case number, and of course you don't - just explain the situation.
IF the police officer didn't cite you, there won't be a file.
NOW, the prosecuting attorney / district attorney may be holding back
on charging you and the file hasn't been sent to the court yet. So,
check back in a week or so.
Then, let us know.
You did well to not permit the search. Don't talk to the police or
prosecutor about any of the facts. Don't talk to anyone. Don't get
suckered into responding to what the police may say someone else in
the vehicle said - they lie often and routinely and are permitted to
do so. Just don't say anything about the night in question.
If there is a file - either get a public defender or an attorney that
you pay. It ALWAYS pays.
Good luck,
weisstho-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
katet09-ga
on
26 Apr 2006 19:06 PDT
First off... thank you for your responces.
I'm not sure what I your asking me to clarify, but ill try to give more details.
The officer asked me to face his car and then he "patted" me down, it
was brief and I was thankful that it didn't get to "touchy/feely". I
believe it was professional, I said 'ok' because I didn't have
anything to hide on my person.
He did touch me, but he didn't grope me or anything. He called a
second officer to pull my 2 friends out of the car at a time and
question them... he was a prick and was really rude. He breathalized
my black friend, no one else. The officer did mention to me AFTER
everything was over that this was visually and audio recorded, so can
they use that against me ?
Again thank you for your input, im all new with this. Back in my home
town I never ever had any issues with the police. I still have not
recieved any notificaton.
|
