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I wanted to post my experience and I am interested in hearing any advice you may have.

So on April 2020 I was driving to work (hospital employee). I was on 26 East bound at approximately 9:40PM going to downtown Portland from Beaverton. I was on the far right lane and going about 55 MPH (that is the posted speed limit). As I am passing the zoo exit, I see a dark SUV on the West side on ramp. Immediately I figured it was an unmarked unit.

I use waze GPS and a Valentine 1 radar/laser detector. I drive safe and within the speed limit, the detector is just to let me know if any speed traps are near me. Do I go two or three miles over the limit sometimes? yes, but I do not drive crazy. When I am on the back roads, sometimes I do drive a bit spiritedly.... come on now, I drive a manual Mustang lol, but I digress. Oh btw I haven't had a ticket in like eleven years....

So I see what appeared to be an unmarked unit around the zoo exit, I was not concerned much as I was driving within the speed limit. And I should mention that I did not receive any laser warnings, and I will get to that in a bit.

So after the zoo exit, speed limit falls to 50 MPH. As I approach the 50 MPH zone, I take my foot off the gas and just coast (while in gear) and my speed drops down from 55. I was probably not going 50, maybe 52 or 53. Of course I still had to slow down a bit here and there before the tunnel because while in gear and coasting, I could gain speed. So, I go through the tunnel, stay to the left as if I was gonna get on I-5. I then take my first exit to the right to get back into downtown.

I get off the highway and once I cleared the off ramp, I see one head light behind me. I had a feeling it was a police bike, but I had nothing to worry about so I was like.... meh. Next thing I know, bright strobe lights go off and I am getting pulled over.

I pull over and discover that it was a Portland Police bike.... great! ugh.... So the officer came up to my window and asked for my license and nothing else. I told him I was carrying legally, he asked where the gun was and I told him and he was fine with the whole thing.

It took him a few minutes and I knew he was gonna give me a ticket. So he came back and told me I was doing 75 in a 50 and gave me a $270 ticket. I was shocked! I asked him a few questions and discovered I was lasered. He said he lasered me but I think the dark SUV facing West on 26 on ramp was the one that tagged me, but I did not get a laser warning from my Valentine 1 when I passed the dark SUV.

There is no way I was going 75. If I was going 75, I would have been hauling butt and traffic was very light. Was my speed between 50 and 55? yes, probably, but I swear on my grandmother and uncle's graves that I was not going 75 MPH.

So the court is extending everything out 90 days, when my plea date comes up, I will plea not guilty! and they will set a trial date for me.

I plan on filing motion for discovery so I can obtain as much information as to what happened. I feel like something dishonest has taken place. I feel like the odds are against me however. My word against a sworn peace officer with speed detecting equipment. Also a second officer was involved so two vs. one.

If they do not provide me with requested information, I think I may be able to file for dismissal but I am not sure. If the officer does not show up, I know the ticket will get dropped.

Anyone with good advice?
Any retired or active LEOs that can comment on what I can do?

I stated that I was running waze GPS earlier, so I downloaded my location files, I did not see a log of my speed, just places I have been etc. I thought about going to the dealership to extract information out of my car's "black box" but I was not in an accident and I don't know what information was stored for how long etc.

Thanks folks.
 
What color, year and trim was your Mustang? Perhaps the dark SUV tagged an identical Mustang speeding with different plates but close enough to yours?
2014 black Mustang with a base trim. Nothing fancy, all stock looking and just tinted windows. There were probably 3 to 5 other cars on the road and nothing that matched my car's description.
 
I'm not an attorney and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but if you can prove you weren't speeding by your vehicles brain you should be good to go.

You should also be able to subpoena the Officers records, Past traffic court cases in which he/she/ze lost, training on the radar gun, the radar guns maintenance records, and even if the MPH sign is certified by the State/County/City. You can learn the codes and see if you were cited correctly or maybe find a small error on the citation. Anything to provide the small shadow of a doubt.

And you can always hope Officer doesn't make the court date.
 
I'm not an attorney and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but if you can prove you weren't speeding by your vehicles brain you should be good to go.

You should also be able to subpoena the Officers records, Past traffic court cases in which he/she/ze lost, training on the radar gun, the radar guns maintenance records, and even if the MPH sign is certified by the State/County/City. You can learn the codes and see if you were cited correctly or maybe find a small error on the citation. Anything to provide the small shadow of a doubt.

And you can always hope Officer doesn't make the court date.
Yeah from what I understand, by filing motion for discovery, I would be obtaining everything related to my stop. Officer notes, dispatcher communications with officers, and more. I contacted the court and they said I have to contact the police department.

Hopefully I will create more work for the system while short handed or whatever with the covid 19 bs going on, and I get to win the case.

I can afford the ticket, that isn't the problem. I feel like something fishy is going on and I do not appreciate the officers' actions casing my anxiety and PTSD to flair up! that is why I am gonna fight this ticket as best as I can. I am a man and if I had made a mistake, I would own it. I do not take such thug behavior from those who swore to serve and protect, lightly. Again, it is a high probability that my speed was between 50 and 55. Technically I was over the speed limit, but the ticket issued to me indicates that I was going 75 and that is not right and I am not guilty of doing 75.

I find it very odd that it was a perfect 75 in a 50 and not 73 or 69.... This same officer had issued someone a ticket for being on their phone while driving, but the person who was ticketed won their case because it was a justified use of phone while driving.
 
Yeah from what I understand, by filing motion for discovery, I would be obtaining everything related to my stop. Officer notes, dispatcher communications with officers, and more. I contacted the court and they said I have to contact the police department.

Hopefully I will create more work for the system while short handed or whatever with the covid 19 bs going on, and I get to win the case.

I can afford the ticket, that isn't the problem. I feel like something fishy is going on and I do not appreciate the officers' actions casing my anxiety and PTSD to flair up! that is why I am gonna fight this ticket as best as I can. I am a man and if I had made a mistake, I would own it. I do not take such thug behavior from those who swore to serve and protect, lightly. Again, it is a high probability that my speed was between 50 and 55. Technically I was over the speed limit, but the ticket issued to me indicates that I was going 75 and that is not right and I am not guilty of doing 75.

I find it very odd that it was a perfect 75 in a 50 and not 73 or 69.... This same officer had issued someone a ticket for being on their phone while driving, but the person who was ticketed won their case because it was a justified use of phone while driving.
Good luck. Hopefully it works out.
 
I'm not an attorney and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn last night, but if you can prove you weren't speeding by your vehicles brain you should be good to go.



And you can always hope Officer doesn't make the court date.
How would you get this information? Is this something most mechanics would have access too? I've heard the car records several things but I've only heard of it being accessed in fatal or injury accidents. Curious minds want to know.
 
Might call a dealer and ask....in the truck world, we can pull data logs from the ECM that shows pretty much everything, but I have no idea if automotive does the same.
 
How would you get this information? Is this something most mechanics would have access too? I've heard the car records several things but I've only heard of it being accessed in fatal or injury accidents. Curious minds want to know.

There is no way to obtain the speed at the time of the ticket. Most modern vehicle's "black box" do indeed record speed, brake pressure, seatbelt position and a few other things at the time of an impact. The airbags deploying would be an event that would trigger the computer to record the event. But just driving around? No, the car doesn't keep track of every speed at every mile so there's no way to plug in and prove anything.

@OP Fight it. Go to trial. Chances are the LEO that cited you won't even show to the court date. And if they do, you can cross examine. If you want records of the last time the lidar gun was calibrated you'll need to subpoena that info before hand.

Good luck and let us know the outcome. :)
 
Just a thought in the wind, but there are traffic cameras all over this city. I'd be interested in if any of them in that region have you driving, and if they show you reasonably traveling with the speed of normal traffic (the other 5 cars or so) it'd blow a hole in the idea that you were driving 20-25 mph over the speed limit. Something for that discovery.
 
If you feel that they may have got the wrong car perhaps you could contact ODOT? There are plenty of traffic cams, approaching the tunnel.
 
I don't know. 55mph in a Mustang, who do you think you're fooling?!:s0140:

Just busting your chops!:D:s0155: I hope you win because I know of a few cases of family members, who were pulled over for supposedly speeding, when I believe it was something to do with the type of vehicle they were driving. :s0092:
 
If you are using Waze, is there not a way to get your history to prove your speed? Same could be petitioned if you use any direction finding app on your phones. That should be admissible in your defense.

Just wondering?

Z
 
Time to buy a dash cam. You wouldn't even need to go through the process with the video footage. As soon as a DA hears you have video footage of the time date and location going 55 or basically anything but what they said, they tend to drop the charges.
 
Is it possible they lased you well before you saw the unmarked, maybe a few exits back and radioed you in to Evil Knievel running traffic? 75mph can seem "normal speed" on the highway especially with little traffic on the road and or many cars doing the same thing.
 
The ECU/DME unit wont show any proof of your speed, the only way to show it is if it was constantly data-logging and you could pull RPM's along with what gear you were in.

This is why GPS trackers are so important. They aren't that expensive and monitor/save your speed. If you have a RD and use Waze I'd invest the few extra bucks for a GPS system. High-end rental car companies use them. They can also be hidden extremely well and synced to a phone app so if your car ever ends up stolen you can track it right away. I put them in all of my cars.



When this entire COVID stuff happened I went out on 205 at 330am between Salem and Portland to do some logging and pulls in my newly single turbo 135i. It nearly turned into a top speed run when I passed a cop. I didn't have enough time to react to my beltronics and got tagged by a cop. I pulled over and he wrote me a ticket but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. It helped since he was a car guy and both of us knew I was only putting myself at risk since noone was on the roads. I'm going to pay that ticket and not fight it since he was a pretty cool guy.

I've had my fair share of run-ins with my AMG and 800whp EvoIX.

I feel like my Evo was in the same boat as your mustang, a cop magnet. I would get pulled over for going 5mph over the speed limit and ticketed. I always fought them.

Best case situation get a lawyer and have him fight the ticket. It might be more expensive for an attorney but you wont have a ticket on your record.

It's a double-edged sword and part of having fun cars, cops will find reasons to pull you over and site you tickets.
 

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