I went to court today with all kinds of photos of the intersection and a diagram showing where the lights were. I was shocked when I went back to photograph the intersection when I discovered that the lights were not even in the middle of the intersection as I thought, but were outside the intersection. I distinctly remembered that I saw the light turn red while I was halfway through the intersection, just before the light went out of view. The fact that the light was located where it was means that I was past the midpoint of the intersection when the light turned red. The cop actually stated that he and the car in front of him had started moving after their light turned green, and that they had to stop when they saw the car in front of me moving into the intersection. He had already testified that the car in front of me made it through on the yellow. So he lied under oath when he said that they had to stop when they saw the car in front of me enter the intersection. I was more than halfway through the intersection before his light turned green. He clearly lied under oath--and he was placed under oath when I was. I stressed that I had a background of more than two decades as a freelance motorsports journalist, and a sterling reputation for observing cars and motorcycles in motion and accurately reporting their movements. Yet the judge believed the cop instead of me, and I don't think she had adequate reason for doing so. My testimony should have had just as much weight as his. Anybody who thinks that cops don't lie in court is just plain stupid! She found me guilty, but withheld adjudication and points from the license. I intend to obtain a copy of the tape or a transcript from the trial, since he later argued that he said they had to stop for me, not the car in front of me, so his two statements clearly disagreed with each other.
A moving violation is $101, but this ticket said the fine was $219. In spite of the fact that she withheld adjudication, she fined me $255, and another $25 fee for extended time to pay the fine. On my way to court, I stopped at a stop light and checked to see how close the Mercury Topaz was behind me, which I estimated at 1-2 feet. I carefully checked to see how much of his windshield filled my rear-view mirror, since the cop's Dodge Charger windshield completely filled my mirror, and I could clearly see the rectangular blue lights behind his windshield. The cop admitted he was close to me in court, but the judge shut me up, and said that if I wanted to press charges against the cop I would have to do so through the police agency that he worked for. The fact is, had the car in front of me put on his turn signal, and turned into a business parking lot or a side street, the cop could not have avoided hitting me. His driving was FAR more dangerous to the public than anything I did, and I insist he must be charged with following too closely and driving to endanger. I have written complaints to two people in charge of law enforcement, and gotten two cops to quit their jobs either under threat of being fired or because they could not be promoted with my letters in their file. The first one was a Massachusetts State Trooper in the sixties, and the second was in 1995, when I wrote to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement about a Gainesville cop. The police chief at the time swept it under the rug, but when a new chief came in, he ordered a review of all complaints against his officers. There were other complaints against this cop, but mine was deemed the most credible, and he was told to quit or be fired. Unfortunately the way this was done left him with no mark against his own record, and so he could go anywhere and apply for a job as a cop, as long as he left the Gainesville stint off his resume. I will be filing another complaint against this officer, including perjury as well as the driving violations. I suspect that his chief will not fire him or allow any charges to show against him, however, and apparently the FDLE has no real authority to act against a crooked cop. I suspect that if I file a lawsuit against his city, however, they would settle it out of court, since they don't want the publicity, and it might lead to copy-cat suits. I also know of another cop who regularly violates the law in his city-owned vehicle, and I will be waiting for him with a digital camera capable of making videos, and I will send that along with my complaint. That should get me noticed.
Stay tuned....
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