Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Injustice in Guadalupe County!
On December 23rd, 2007, my wife and I were headed to my parents’ house for Christmas. During our trip I was wrongly issued a speeding citation. I pleaded not guilty but ended up settling out of court. Here’s an account of what happened and what I would recommend you do if you find yourself in a similar situation.
The Details
The citation-issuing officer instructed me to call the Guadalupe County Justice of the Peace by a certain date in order to take care of my ticket. The paperwork that I was given gave me the option of taking care of the ticket via mail. By mail, my only two options were to plead guilty or to plead no-contest (with or without taking a driver’s safety course).
Neither of these options were satisfactory, since I did nothing wrong. When I called the court, I told the lady on the phone that I intended to enter a plea of not guilty; she instructed me to put that in writing and mail it to the court. Okay, fine. Done and done.
Shortly thereafter, I received a letter from the court stating that they had scheduled a Pre-Trial Hearing, for which my attendance was absolutely required. Most people I’ve talked with that are experienced in speeding tickets say that Pre-Trial Hearings are not required and that you should not go. After questioning the court via phone, they stressed over and over again that I was required to be there. Playing good citizen, I did what they asked.
The drive from Austin to Seguin where the courthouse is located was around 70 miles each way. This is not necessarily how I enjoy spending my time, but I figured I could go armed with enough evidence to have them dismiss my case. (While the officer was writing the citation, we took detailed notes of the surrounding circumstances, took pictures of the average speed listed by my cars on-board computer, etc.)
When I arrived, I signed-in and took a seat in the courtroom. There were two attorneys in the front of the room, meeting individually with people like me. There were probably twenty people in the room, so I was able to overhear the stories of most of them. It seemed that stories nearly identical to mine were commonplace.
I had prepared a statement so I wouldn’t miss any details. So when it was my turn to talk with the attorney, I just handed him my statement, and let him read. Here are the facts of the case, unaltered as I presented them to the prosecuting attorney at my Pre-Trial Hearing:
My wife and I were driving east on I-10, traveling from San Antonio to Houston. My cruise control was set on 69 MPH. As we were driving and before we were pulled over, we passed 3 separate cars on the side of the highway that had been pulled over by highway patrol officers. After seeing the first car on the side of the highway, I double-checked my cruise control. My car has two speedometers: one analog and one digital. The digital speedometer is one of six functions on an on-board computer. I switched the computer to the digital speed readout to verify the cruise control speed, which I had set by reading the analog speedometer. The digital speedometer read 69 MPH.
The time between seeing the first car pulled over and the 3rd car pulled over was around 15 minutes. Shortly after passing the 3rd car, I noticed a highway patrol car driving on the other side of the highway. I noticed this patrol car because the overhead, flashing lights were on. I estimate that the patrol car was around 200 yards away from me at this point. Also at this point, I was in the right hand lane, behind an 18-wheeler. My car and the 18-wheeler had been traveling like this for some time; that is, we were maintaining the distance between us.
After passing this patrol car on the other side of the road, I noticed in the rear-view mirror the patrol car was using the median to turn around to head in the same direction as our travel. At this point, I triple-checked my cruise control setting. It was indeed still set at 69 MPH.
After the highway patrol officer had driven up behind me with his lights on, I pulled over, offered my driver’s license and proof of insurance to the officer. The officer stated that he had clocked me on radar traveling at 85 MPH. As I had absolutely not been going this fast, I asked to see the radar. The officer then stated that his equipment did not save the value and that he could not show me anything that read 85 MPH.
At this point, I attempted to explain to the officer that I had my cruise control set on 69 MPH and that I had been following an 18-wheeler in the right-hand lane for quite some time. The officer stated that he did not want to argue about my alleged speed while standing on the side of the road. He then gave me the traffic citation, on which the alleged speed is given as 80 MPH. The officer did not offer an explanation as to why there was a discrepancy between the speed at which he allegedly clocked me, and the speed for which he wrote the traffic citation.
I have two supporting pictures. Both were taken after the citation was issued. The first picture depicts the average speed since the last time the average speed computer was reset. Without fail, I reset this computer each time I refuel the automobile. The second picture depicts the trip-odometer, which was reset when I refueled, less than 80 miles prior to receiving the citation. The gas station was located on 25291 I-10 West, where I refueled at 2:51 PM. The average speed, therefore, represents nearly 100% highway driving, on the stretch of I-10 where the citation was issued.
After reading through my statement and looking at my pictures, the attorney said that he could not dismiss my case based on the evidence I presented. He did, however, offer me a settlement. The same settlement, in fact, that he had offered every single other person that came into the courtroom to plead not guilty for a speeding ticket. The offer included a minor reduction in the fine (which came to a bit over $100 for me) and 60 days of probation. After the probation period, the ticket will be dismissed provided I do not receive another citation in the time period. Additionally, I am not required to take a driving safety course.
The decision basically came down to this: Did I want to make another trip from Austin to Seguin? If I would have not accepted the settlement offer, they would have set a legitimate trial date, and I would have been required to tell my story to the judge. The officer would be there to tell his side of the story (maybe). Further, the attorney told me that, were I to go to trial and lose, the judge would likely not allow me to take defensive driving. I don’t know how true that sentiment was, but I took the advice — a mark on my record without the ability to scrub it off is the last thing I wanted.
So…
Avoid IH-10 Through Seguin!
If at all possible, I recommend never driving through Seguin, Texas. This place does not deserve your time nor your money. A few other tidbits related to my speeding ticket lead me to this recommendation:
- After receiving my undeserved citation, I begrudgingly continued down IH-10. Soon thereafter, I see yet another police officer pull over yet another automobile. This truck was going exactly the same speed I was at the time — just under the speed limit. I know because I was maintaining a comfortable distance behind him using cruise control. Further, he was behind and 18 wheeler, also maintaining a comfortable, non-changing distance between them. It seems to me that there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to getting pulled over. Perhaps they were just meeting quotas? It was the end of the month. I have no way of knowing for sure, but I do know that at least two incidents that day were bogus.
- Seguin is crawling with DPS officers. Even if you normally are a 100% competent driver, never speed, and obey all of the rules, your chances of getting a ticket must be higher when there are more officers. You have to slip up sometime. Or perhaps be wrongfully accused.
- When I was driving through Seguin on my way towards the courthouse, I was struck by how dilapidated nearly all of the buildings on the main road appeared. The courthouse, though — that’s an entirely different story. It was by far the nicest building that I encountered. Could it be that so many people speed through Seguin that their ticket revenue has directly supported the construction of a beautiful new courthouse facility? Likely. Given my experience, though, I wonder how many of those tickets were completely undeserved. Regardless, speeding ticket revenue seems like quite a profitable little enterprise.
Seguin, TX is a speed trap, no doubt about it. Avoid it if you can.
Other Recommendations
So, you’ve decided that there’s no other possible route for you to take except IH-10 through Seguin. Fine. Be prepared. You might want to drive on the feeder. But if you do get a ticket, I think that driving out for the Pre-Trial Hearing settlement offer is worth it. Why? Assuming that you get a similar offer to mine…
- You might get a reduced fine as compared to pleading guilty or no-contest.
- You might not have to waste time in a driver’s safety course.
- The citation might not go on your record after a probationary period.
Of course, it is entirely possible that you are offered absolutely none of this, and pleading not guilty could be a complete waste of time. You need to weigh that possibility before you make a final decision.
In the End…
After taking the settlement offer, I walked out of the courthouse with the distinct feeling that I had just done something morally corrupt. I paid $110 to Guadalupe County for something I didn’t do. That’s wrong! I paid these people off to leave me alone! Gross! Unethical!
I guess I felt a bit helpless in the situation though. I felt that it would have a waste of time to argue. Gas money to get there and back (again), a least a half-day worth of my time, and the more-than-likely outcome ("you’re guilty because we believe police officers instead of normal citizens") seemed inevitable. It was entirely depressing. Innocent until proven guilty… or until you are beaten into submission by red tape.
The good news is that the decision is over with, the money has been spent, and I can get on with my life. And maybe someone out there with a similar situation will find this posting useful.