Court Date #2

Today was my 2nd trip to the courthouse for my "Exhibition of Speed" ticket. (See here for the original post, and here for the 1st court date.) This time it was a pretrial conference, and we met with the DA (or DA's assistant or something). I don't think she has the authority to completely dismiss the case, but after hearing what happed she offered a plea of "defective vehicle" and 2 points on my license.

As much as it PAINS me to do it, I plead guilty. I have a real problem with pleading guilty to something when I didn't do anything wrong, but this saves me more wasted hours at the courthouse. It really bothers me though, because it means that a cop can write me a traffic ticket for any bogus thing that he wants, and I have to take time out of work for 2 trips to the courthouse, and eventually pay $60 for something that NEVER HAPPENED. I had to bite my tongue when the court person was reading the police report and it said something about him determining that I was going fast by the fact that I passed some cars, and that my RPM's were high. Hey asshole, I can wind my car out in 1st gear if I want and still not break the speed limit. I'd like to pen a letter to the court and the cop that wrote the ticket, but I know it will do no good.

It could be worse though. A friend of mine got a reckless driving ticket and ended up with some points, probation, and community service. The difference was that he was actually checking the performance of his new WRX ECU, and I was just trying to drive home. I'm glad I've got this closed up though, because now I can drive with my car in its "loud" mode again without worry. And I'll continue to drive my car loudly in first gear by cops, I just won't rapidly accelerate it while I do it. :)