I was Framed Up by NYPD

Not that you haven't heard stories like this. Or maybe you haven't...

I'm in my car waiting at a red light. Then the light turns green. I start to proceed through the intersection. No sooner than I did when a marked car comes up behind me, lights flashing like mad. This joker gives me two criminal court summons; one for passing a steady red light and the other for RECKLESS DRIVING. I'm not a law student or anything like that, but I would imagine a car has to at least be IN MOTION for it to approach anything as serious as RECKLESS DRIVING. That's a career-ending conviction right there. At T/P/O I thought these were two of those "Gag Summoses" that I know you can buy in candy stores and places like that. That's bad business there, guy!

So I'm forced to hire a lawyer for $1300.00 that I can ill-afford and the nazi cop shows up in court. When did the United States become nazi Germany again? Luckily my lawyer finds a small technicality, some small, obscure, insignificant, miniscule little loophole nothing that now I "only" have to pay $100.00 fine to Dracula's Courtroom later on in this month.

What is my recourse in a frame-up like this? Only to file a complaint with the local police review board that I did and I'm forwarding it to the US Dept of Justice as well as they take these kind of reports too.

What is the moral of the story? The moral of the story is a misguided, rogue, ticket-happy nazi cop can make life for you, the innocent person or motorist very very difficult at times. Actually a couple of them at this juncture. His partner was in "on the act" also, getting out of the police car and playing "the Gag" right along with the first cop. Although this was no gag.

PS: I hope there are no cops reading this because I don't want to give you any ideas!

One of the first lessons that's taught up here at Yale is that, while the American legal system has its flaws, the alternatives are worse by FAR!

Consider your scenario. By your own admission, you were facing a "career-ending conviction" --- a conviction that was reduced to a mere fine by an attorney who charged you only $1,300 total. Assuming that the attorney billed at $125/hour (a fairly modest rate), that's under 11 hours of service for everything from the actual courtroom representation, to submiting materials, all the way down to speaking with you about your situation when this all got started. Even if all of that doesn't come to 11 hours (though it seems reasonable that it would), it's a bargain compared to the damage you could have incurred.

Granted, this is the post-holiday season --- most don't want to think about the bills they already have let alone a $1,300 legal charge and an $100 extra fine on top of that. Then again, most police officers don't issue one citation (much less multiple citations) without due cause. Take this incident as a freebie --- pay your tiny $100 fine and pay it gladly. Don't expect any worthwhile outcome from the US DOJ because first of all, it doesn't seem as though you have anything to appeal; and second, even if you do, that will entail more legal representation (which doesn't seem worthwhile to settle a $100 fine even if you had the budget to hire an attorney to represent you on a matter of principle).

I know, this probably isn't what you want to hear --- but remember what I mentioned at the beginning of this post; sometimes, we have to put up with the modest imperfections of our legal and government systems to enjoy the larger benefits they endow!

Brad

Very good, Brad. As is par for the course for you. Thank you so much for your help and advice again. Btw my good attorney charged $250 per hour but he put in more work than that, including an exxtra visit to the courthouse to view the file.

All in all though, the whole thing is a ridiculous scenario. As outlandish and outrageous and unbelievable as I explained it, this is exactly what happened. The cop is a young cop; I guess his most logical motus operandi is to make himself and the lieutenant and the sargeant look better on the Sheet. You're not supposed to give a Reckless Driving summons to a car/driver who is not even in motion.

I'm going ahead and faxing some documents of the case to the DOJ. I don't know what they can do, hopefully something but I don't plan on consulting with my attorney again just to send these papers over to the DOJ.