My run-in with small town law enforcement ended today (long).

[deadparrot]

After four months. :toast:

Okay, the story begins on my way home from college for Christmas break. I was on a four lane highway (two lanes one direction, two the other). I'm in the right lane. There was crappy weather, so I was going about ten miles under the speed limit. I passed a cop who had a guy pulled over on the shoulder of the road. I thought that was pretty normal; with all the college students going home, I knew that they'd be out. Not even thinking, I kept going.

Suddenly, I glance in my rear view mirror. Aforementioned cop is now trailing me, lights flashing, the whole ten yards. I glance at my speedometer (still ten under). Not sure what it's all about, I pull over, kind of freaking out at this point.

This redneck asshole strolls up to my car and asks, all smarmy, if I was aware that I was supposed to change lanes when passing a stopped emergency vehicle.

Uh, no. I wasn't aware, and said as much. So the asshole gives me a ticket. Now, I'm a type-A personality, an overachiever, a generally good kid. So I was pissed and freaked out and mortified.

Anyway, I stew all the way back home. When I arrive, I tell my mom the whole story. She thinks it's stupid, I agree. When my dad gets home, he thinks it's stupid. I agree.

Later that night, my mom and dad went to a Christmas party at my dad's work. One of his co-worker's husband's is a lawyer. My dad told HIM the whole story, and he told my dad that he (the lawyer) could contest it, that it should be no problem, that it was pointless to add points to my license, etc. When my dad told me about it the next day, I truthfully just wanted to pay the ticket and be done with it. But he had already accepted the guy's offer, so okay, I agreed. Why not?

So over the past several months, they've been doing this legal tango, but no one's really been talking to me about it. There's been some court dates that the lawyer said he would cover. So I'm back at school for second semester, doing my thing. This ticket is the last thing on my mind.

Wednesday evening, I'm studying for a major International Relations exam. I'm stressed out after what had already been a long week, academically and personally. My phone rings, and it's my mom. She asks how I am, I answer that I'm stressed. She tells me that she's about to add to it, and that there's an arrest warrant out for me in this little boondock county where I got the ticket.

:wow:

So I spent Wednesday night sobbing hysterically.

Apparently, our lawyer had reached this deal in which I would I would go to traffic school (which pissed me off in itself, but given the circumstances, it wasn't at the top of my mind) in exchange for nixing the ticket.

So they'd presented this thing to the judge, and the redneck rejects the plea agreement and puts a warrant out for my arrest. Apparently, not pulling over is worse than speeding. So yeah, I was a wanted criminal. We still don't know what his reasoning was (my parents figured that there might be an impression of big-city lawyers coming in to tell these small-town folks how to operate). The lawyer said that it was the first ticket in 20 years that he couldn't contest.

My parents didn't want me driving home Easter weekend, so they came up and brought me home. When they picked me up on Friday, they told me that they'd stopped in this town and paid the ticket on the way up, and that I had to send in a written plea of guilty to this offense in order to rescind the arrest warrant. So I do, and on our way back up to school on Monday, we brought it in.

My dad just informed me that I'm no longer a wanted criminal. And if I take an online traffic course within 50 days, they won't add points to my license.

:woohoo: It's over! So that's my "sigh of relief" story for the day. :)

[_testify_]

1. Wow. Sounds like 'My Cousin Vinny'

I'm glad you got through all that! :hi:

[deadparrot]

3. Thanks!

It's a huge weight off my shoulders. :D

[petronius]

33. Yeah, really - "so at what point did you shoot the clerk?"

"I shot the clerk! I SHOT the clerk!"

[skygazer]

2. Wow, what a bummer

I'm glad it's over for you, though (except for the traffic school).

You know, I've been driving for about 30 years and I've never in all that time gotten just a warning. I haven't been stopped too awful many times but every time I have, I've been polite and non-argumentive and I've always been slapped with a damn ticket. :nuke:

[deadparrot]

5. Thanks, skygazer.

I've been driving for about three years now, and have never been in an accident or gotten a ticket aside from this one. I'm a freakishly careful driver. So the entire situation scared me to death.

I know friends who have gotten out of tickets by crying, but I have yet to see it in person. :shrug:

[realisticphish]

10. ditto

i hear all these stories "the cop was cool" "he said it was no big deal"

fuck that. :grr:

apparently MY cops were the only bastards :shrug:

and yours, obviously.

[ZombieNixon]

4. Wow. That is harsh.

Glad you're OK, though. :toast:

I had my run-in with the redneck police last year...fortunately I got the ticket deferred.

[deadparrot]

7. Thanks.

Small-town police are the worst. Especially around college towns...they know you're coming and plan their schedules accordingly. :)

[texas1928]

6. The cop was a little overboard giving you a ticket.

But I know in Texas it is illegal if you do not change lanes when you see an emergency vehicle with lights on. They are trying to cut down on the number of accidents you see now of people hitting cop cars that are stopped or the vehicle they have stopped.

[deadparrot]

11. I know.

And it is illegal. I understand why, too. But they've only recently started enforcing it in Missouri. No one I've talked to, from my teenage friends to my 80+ year old grandparents, knew that it existed. They've thanked me for letting them know about it. :)

[Suich]

22. Is that a big problem in Texas?...cars running into cop cars

parked on the shoulder? I'm assuming we're talking DUI's here. Is it a bigger problem in Texas than other states? Is that why they were arresting people in bars for being drunk? I thought that was a bit goofy when they arrested someone in a hotel bar who was staying at the hotel!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

23. TX=no state income tax=gotta get the $ outta ya somehow

[Suich]

27. With me, they're getting $$ out of me with property taxes!

I welcome the day we get a state income tax and a CAP on sales tax! Do I think it will ever happen? Not in my lifetime!

[Capn Sunshine]

8. Remember, samll town traffic violations are a major source of revenue

In many, the "officer" is paid a piece of any fines he brings in.

Many big city washouts end up doing this duty, akin to Army Ranger washouts going to work for Blackwater, and the locals figure no harm done, they don't know the ones who get cited.

But in this day of Federal fund cutbacks , these small municipalities have little or no budget for their cops, so they have to depend on citations to pay the guy.

[deadparrot]

12. Yeah.

The revenue thing is what my parents warn me about every time I go home or come back. Plus, the town is between two college towns, so I know they watch and wait carefully, especially around breaks.

[Suich]

9. I don't get it....am I missing something?

If I'm driving on a freeway and a cop has someone pulled over on the shoulder, I'm supposed to move over a lane?????

[deadparrot]

13. Apparently so, in Missouri.

My younger brother, who's preparing for the driver's test, checked the manual, and it is indeed in there. But no one I've talked to about it has heard about it. :shrug:

[gkdmaths]

15. Im not sure if it depends

what state youre in or not. I drove a truck for a while saving for college, and I learned that regardless of the law, its always safer to make room.

I always pull over when passing johnylaw. But then again, I always do the limit and stop for yellow lights, too.

on edit: BTW, what state was this in, so I can avoid it in the future.

[deadparrot]

17. Missouri.

:hi:

[gkdmaths]

19. Thanks!

but I dont have the time to get that far away from home (WA) now, anyway.

:D

[deadparrot]

21. I don't think you'd want to come, even if you could.

It is Missouri, after all. :)

[Broken_Hero]

24. what part of MO

I got hit with two tickets in Noel MO this past december, a bunch of guffaw for nothing...

[deadparrot]

25. Randolph County.

The next county north of Columbia. :hi:

[Broken_Hero]

30. damn, thats up there...

well here is a wave from the extreme SW part of MO, McDonald County...:hi:

[deadparrot]

31. Thanks!

How's the weather down there?

[Broken_Hero]

32. hot, and hot

the past four days or so, it has been over 90 degrees, and it totally sucks. Not to windy either, no rain predicted until this weekend. I'm from alaska, and this damn heat is killing me...its not even summer yet, and yesterday it was 95 damn degree's outside...

[petronius]

34. I always move over, too, no matter who it is on the side of the road

but I never knew it was legally required anywhere. (My driver's ed teacher way back had it tough enough just keeping us off the lawns and sidewalks; I guess he didn't have time for the finer points...)

[PeterPuck]

35. Even if it is not the law...

It just makes common sense. If you are coming along at 55mph and a car is on the shoulder (cop car, broken down vehicle, someone changing a tire), why not give yourself the extra space. You never know if someone is going to step into the lane or open their door up without looking.

[Lars39]

14. Good grief!

What an ordeal. TN recently passed a law like that because a State Trooper got mowed down.
The very next time I was on I40 during the day after that law passed, there was a trooper pulled over at the bottom of a hill.

Traffic was kinda heavy, but all of a sudden everybody's getting into the left-hand lane at the same time, whether there was room for them or not.

It almost caused multiple wrecks all up and down that stretch.
Panicked lane-switching at 70-75+ put more people's lives in danger in that instance than just that trooper's.

[deadparrot]

16. Yeah, I'm glad it's over.

I understand the point of the law, but you're right, worry over trying to switch lanes could be just as dangerous.

[SeattleGirl]

18. Wow, an arrest warrant?

Must be a REALLY boring, small town! I'm glad it's resolved now, though.

I got pulled over a few years ago when I was driving past a road work area. The speed limit on that street is 40; when I saw the workers, I slowed to 20. Next thing I know, I'm getting pulled over. The officer told me that I was going too fast; I should not be going faster than 15 mph. I asked him (in a VERY polite voice) why there was no speed limit sign out there saying that. He said he didn't know, but I was in the wrong anyway. At least I didn't get a ticket, but come on. Couldn't they have put a temporary sign out saying 15 mph? Or had a flagger?

[deadparrot]

20. Very boring, indeed.

Dad joked that we must be the big story. :)

Glad your situation turned out okay, too, despite the silly reasoning behind it. :hi:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

28. I used to collect warrants.

I worked in a town with 1 hr parking and my boss used to like to ignore the tickets until I got a warrant (and arrested once) instead of just paying them in the first place like he agreed to.

[Floogeldy]

26. So, you drove by and splashed water all over a highway patrolman?

:)

[deadparrot]

29. Hindsight being 20/20, you can't imagine how much I wish I *did*!

Alas, it was icy that day, not wet. :hi: