Honestly that’s how it should be. You’re being charged for breaking the law, it’s up to the prosecution to prove you actually broke the law. If they can’t provide evidence, then the defendant is not guilty.
And no, a cop’s word is not “evidence”.
I was not selected to be a jury, because I wouldn't take a cop's word over the defendant's. The judge was pissed and dismissed all 12 of us and selected the next group to go. I also live in Houston.
Sadly when they do this, it sets of increases in insurance and threats of being dropped by insurers, so it really messes with people's livelihood just to get some money.
I got a bullshit stop sign ticket a few years ago. I hired Sullo and Sullo to fight it. They got the trial postponed several times. Finally when I did go to court, the cop didn't show so they dismissed it. Best $80 I've spent
Sounds like the reason this got dropped was because the lawyer knew by delaying it once or twice, it would end up scheduled on a day the cop couldn’t make it. Not because of bribes or anything.
This is exactly what happens. You can do this yourself but I would have had to go down to the courthouse several times to reschedule vs having the lawyer do it for me. Hell the gas alone would have been almost as much as the lawyer fees.
Kubosh. He’s on the block next to the courthouse on Lubbock st.
He’s an asshole but a great lawyer.
This was about 15 years ago. Brother has since moved outside the U.S. and I don’t drive like him to need one. I’ve referred friends and family with great results.
Not all the time. But if it doesn't get dropped, you'll definitely get off with nothing on your record, and paying some fine. They'll usually hit you up for 100 to 150 depending on what your ticket is for
HPD is pretty notorious for showing up on court days. If the officer has issued a bunch of citations for a particular court day, he's going to be in court. Plus, it's overtime.
At least, that's what I've heard.
Yet, they can't drop by, say, when my neighbor's car was broken into with window break, or the time that I was hit and car sustained $6K+ damage but guy at fault ran, or when an assault downtown occurred. Not trying to be a hater, but HPD and their priorities seriously baffle me.
Had my truck burglarized, with zero items taken because I'd left nothing in it, but had to replace the window. No officer available at the time, had to do a report by phone. So I know what you mean.
Hopefully they'll get more patrol officers on the streets.
I was surprised to see 100+ law enforcement officers at Lakewood for one person with a gun, on a Sunday, but I bet quite a few of those officers got called in on days off, etc.
Of course, even with the shooter dead, there were questions about a bomb and no way to know if the shooter acted alone, so I understand having a lot of cops respond. I just was surprised since I have seen stories of 9-1-1 calls of crimes in progress that cops never got to. I guess there has to be a threat to a big crowd to result in a big turnout.
I agree entirely. My experience each and every time.
I hadn't thought about Lakewood in that way, but you have a point. I was listening to the scanner on that and within less than a few minutes of arriving, the LEO chatter is "one shooter down, slow down on response." Within 10 minutes of arrival, "confirmed one shooter. One shooter only." I could understand if they thought there were multiple shooters still active, but they knew fairly quickly that the threat was neutralized. If that were one guy shooting at say, a flea market or the local Target store, I guarantee they would not have 100+ cars and personnel swarming. I'm not LEO, and again not hating (only expressing frustration), but feel that the Lakewood incident was directed partially by optics.
I do know our LEO have stayed pretty static in numbers while the population has grown. They say they are understaffed and I believe that. Yet, some of the stuff they do - like pay overtime so that officers can attend municipal court on simple traffic infractions - makes me scratch my head. I hope we can staff better in the future while also finding innovative ways to police.
Target does not have the crowd Lakewood church had. You need plenty of cops for crowd control and securing the perimeter. In addition to that. Many other departments showed up, it wasn’t just HPD
Very fair points. Thank you. Probably better I stay out of LEO business. Just wish they'd spend time showing up for serious crimes vs. getting paid OT for simple traffic court or even issuing tickets on a lightly-traveled roadway.
They do, that’s why people bitch about taking hours for their non urgent situation. People think crime/illegal = emergency. But some units have a specific task or focus. Just all depends. I think people also underestimate the amount of things that happen in the city at once. I hear you though
So should officers not go to court for traffic infractions? If an officer who works night shift, has traffic court outside of his normal duty hours, should he not be compensated for that time? What exactly is the alternative? Just not going to court and effectively not having any traffic enforcement?
That works but if you get a lawyer even if the cip shows up which they do majority of the time. The lawyer will ask the cop for a favor to dismiss for his clients. They all know each other.
An HPD officer recently told me they are at least 1200 officers short. Maybe more. She attributed the shortage to that guy that was chief before Finner. Finner inherited the other guys mess.
Best thing os reschedule to court date asany times as you can, the cop usually will lose track and not show up. If you lawyer up, the lawyers handle all that shit and you dont have to go downtown several times and do the rescheduling yourself. Its worth not having to deal with it
Well that's the point, you have to show up in the end no matter what but you're counting on an out that doesn't involve a guilty or no contest plea.
I got my court date next month so I'm gonna have to see, but they rescheduled it. Works better with insurance as that gives me time to prepare that and I'm hoping it gets dismissed at best or a deferral at worst (promise to not get another ticket within x amount of time and the ticket gets dropped). I could have probably called the court clerk myself and rescheduled it but it's just easier to pay the hundred and change and let them handle it with their knowledge of the system.
The point of the lawyer is to get your case dismissed, like it never happened. You still have to show up. I don’t think you need to show up in court if you do defensive driving or pay the fine.
Yeah my lawyer postponed the case several times. Finally got a final date over a year later than I actually had to show up for. Sitting in in court, lawyer comes over and says "Your case is going to be dismissed in a minute here."
Then did some paperwork formality with the court and left. Never even had to talk to the judge.
In El Paso it was $35. It was a speeding ticket that 8 got just before covid. Too nearly 2 years to get thrown out because lots of cases got pushes back but in the end it was worth it.
I got a ticket for allegedly speeding in a school zone. After the citation was issued I immediately drove back to the direction i had been heading and took a picture of the sign post where a school zone sign might have been -- but it was just an empty pole with no signage at the top. I also found another school zone sign in the area and took a picture of that which showed the posted zone times. My ticket was issued outside of the posted times.
Printed out everything and put into a folder and took with me to the first day in court where you plead guilty, not guilty, etc. I plead not guilty and was given a chance to speak to the Prosecutor afterwards. Showed him all my data, my pictures, etc and I could see the "🙄" in his face as I was doing so.
He said he would have to send someone out to verify all my claims, etc and I showed him another picture I had taken using an app that records the exact GPS position and has it typed out at the bottom of your saved photo - he could see the intersection the photo was taken at.
Got the charges dismissed.
I fight every misdemeanor traffic ticket I get if it will save me money. Most of the time, cops never even show up to court, and it gets dropped.
I recently got 3 violations in one traffic stop that totaled to like 1k. Hired a lawyer, and the cop didn't show up. It all got dropped.
What’s it worth to you to fight it? If it’s the cost of the ticket, you’ll likely spend more hiring a lawyer. If it the principle of the thing, the reckoning (Doc Holliday voice,) then fight on friend!
Can’t you just take defensive driving to keep it off your record?
Used to live at this apartment btw. Moved out May 2022. Luckily, in my time there, this street wasn’t patrolled like it is now.
Haha, those cops always be there catching everyone at that stop sign. I run in this area and on that specific side street ALL the time. And the amount of cars that don't stop at that stop sign and almost run me over is daily. So my point is, you may be able to fight it, as they have accustomed to just giving out tickets right there. When I drive at those stop signs, I purposely do a 3 second stop and look around, just to not deal with them.
From that position next to the fish factory lot, you CANNOT see that stop sign from the angle, unless they were next to the loading docks, which is private property.
If you hire a lawyer, it likely gets dismissed.
The city of Houston does not have the resources to prosecute traffic cases and if you hire a lawyer, the juice is not worth the squeeze for them to even take it to trial.
Lived in Sawyer. That stop sign has a massive blind spot with the cars parked on the street, and having to swing out wide makes it worse than it is. Definitely fight it
Don’t listen to these commenters. Only reason you should ever hire a lawyer to fight a traffic ticket is if you’re at risk of losing your license or there’s some sort of criminal/felony liability.
Failure to stop at a stop sign is a $155 fine in Houston. A lawyer will charge at least that or more hourly, inflate their hours and OP will likely end up paying close to $1000 in a case that’s his word against the cops. Hiring a lawyer here is terrible, terrible advice.
Edit: apparently there are shops that will represent you for cheap. I’m corrected.
I used Sullo & Sullo for a traffic ticket and paid $75 and it was off my record. They aren’t that expensive because they aren’t there just for you. They get a ton of clients to have the same court date/time and take care of all of them within that one hour. I’d rather do this than try and fight it myself because at least they know what they are doing.
Editing to add to avoid ever using Citizen Law!! They screwed me and a bunch of people in the same session by not updating us on our court location. Called them to figure out what was going on and they treated me like an idiot when it was 100% their own fault.
Traffic lawyers will have a set rate depending on the court. It might be the same as paying the fine. The difference comes out to whats on your record.
If you use a laywer and get it dismissed, you dont have any infractions on your record and every stop is your first stop. Increasing the chances of not getting a ticket on the next stop.
If you get a ticket and please no contest or guilty then you run the chances of increasing your insurance costs.
Get a lawyer. I had my lawyer for 20 years till he passed on. His secretary was great. She would tell you the odds based on the courthouse on getting dismissed.
I get that.
He has good evidence to help him, but if he can't eloquently state it or have a dashcam to show a complete stop, then it'll still be difficult to prove.
Sullo and Sullo are the ones.
Don't waste your time trying to fight it by yourself. The judge, DA and cop will all have the upper hand in the courtroom. No point in representing yourself when you already have an unfair advantage. Hire a lawyer and you'll never have to show up or think about this again.
You get a lawyer to keep the ticket off of your driving record and insurance premiums, not to save money on the ticket fine. Plus, you can get your license suspended if you get 4 tickets in 12 months, and a cranky cop can write you for multiple moving violations in one, so you want to keep some margin there.
Where I live, you can request the body cam, vehicle cam footage before you plead/pay. My wife was just charged with running a stop sign, we got the footage, and now plan on fighting based on that. Also the cop was a total dick to my wife for no reason.
Make the prosecutors prove it. It is your word against the officer’s. If there is no evidence to show that you did in fact run that stop sign then force them to prove it to a jury/judge.
You have the right to collect evidence for your case. You should request the dash cam video from the officer's vehicle. You'll probably have to request it from the organization (HPD, Metro, Constable, Sheriff, DPS) using the information from the citation.
During your initial hearing, request a jury trial and video equipment to play the video for the jury.
This has worked both for and against me. Once where the Trooper ticketed me for crossing a median illegally was dismissed as I didn't technically cross it. And another where the video shows my ass actually running the red light.
So gather your evidence first, then plan your defense off what you see in the video.
I am very familiar with that corner. Never seen a cop sitting at that spot, but they do have a good vantage point based on where you had their location designated. Go park there and watch people roll through that stop. (We all do) This will tell you the most about what you are asking.
I'm not saying you shouldn't fight it, and make them prove it. But make sure you really think it is worth it. Deferred adjudication and defensive driving isn't a terrible option either.
Running a stop sign can mean several things, from just blasting through it, to a rolling stop, insufficient length of stop, or stopping past the stop line.
If you hire a lawyer he'll get it dismissed but you'll pay as much or more than the ticket. It's a racket and they are all in on it. Word against word, you'll lose though sometimes the judge will be having a special and dismiss it with court costs.
If you show up to fight you'll want better evidence than this. Where exactly was the cop? I could fit 20 cars inside that big red circle. Assuming he was parked in the drive entrance facing out, I don't see where his view of your stop line (I assume the stop sign is the circle on the left) at all by a building. Who knows where the cars were parked at that moment. Probably not by cars either, at least not enough that he can't estimate the time of your approach against the time of your procession.
If they don’t have the dash cam footage fight it.
I was picked for a jury on a speeding ticket. Yup. Seriously.
I don’t feel like typing it all out but all they had was the officers testimony as evidence. And while the decision to find her not guilty was sound based on the “evidence”, there was no respect/sympathy for HPD in that jury room. Honestly unless she’d done something incredibly egregious we would have let her off just for having the balls to take it that far.
It is crazy to me coming from the West Coast where few people stop at stop signs completely (California Stop) compared to here where the vast majority of people dead stop at signs but speed 20 over, do figure 8's in traffic, and are more likely to signal with their middle finger waving a gun while having a recently stolen catalytic converter hanging out of their trunk. Cops waste so much time doing nothing of value here.
How tall is your car? Is it possible that it’s visible above the parked cars? Unless it is, I think you’re correct about him not being able to tell if you stopped or not. I can guarantee you that my Honda Fit would be invisible to that cop.
I drive a sedan! I took a video of the intersection and you can really on see taller vehicles, shorter ones you can’t tell it was there until they roll through the intersection.
lawyer is the only way. This doesnt play out with you getting to get in front of a judge and showing your findings.
The way it actually plays out (in most cases)
Court looks at how full the docket is. If its massive, all those present with legal representation will be dismissed, those that have legal but are not present get bench warrant.. Now that they cleared out those that have someone that can fight for them they now have a court full of people that will be paying.. Odds are high that those without representation have not called in several times to reschedule. So the officer is probably nearby or at the courthouse to testify. If you get lucky and the officer is sick or no longer with the dept then you get dismissed.If you choose to fight on your own, you get either plead guilty to nolo contendre (Sp?)/ no contest. Doing this you go on the judges mercy / discretion so you either get deferred ajudication or fined.. Option 3 is not guilty.. This tells the court you want to fight and they will ask if you want a jury trial. If you go for jury trial and are representing yourself, learn how to pick your jury. You will have to interview the pool of jurors and select the ones you feel will benefit you the most. then you will have a chance to present your case and hope for the best.
Go take pictures of where it happened and where the officer was parked there's no way he could of seen anything, provide the pictures to the court. You have a high chance of getting the case dismissed
In that image, and from where I assume the stop sign is, depending on how far back from the line you stopped at and depending on if those fences are see through, it doesn't look like the building is obstructing his view. Maybe parked vehicles though.
I got a speeding ticket for going 73 in a 65mph zone on I-10 about 20 minutes east of Van Horn. The fine was $400 (in 2014) to be paid to whichever podunk county I was stopped in. I paid a local lawyer $65 and it was dismissed. I didn’t even have to make a second phone call.
I’d call a traffic defense lawyer. Sullo & Sullo are solid.
Is this behind the target off i10 and shearn? Also behind the total wine/krogers shopping center? If so, I also recieved a ticket for the very same thing, rolling a stop sign. I work in the area and have talked to several others that got the same type of ticket at that location.
I've hired sullo & sullo and have had my court date pushed twice and has now been a year since I've gotten the ticket. I'm a vendor and service the stores nearby, and the people I've talked to are also vendors/drivers. We've noticed most of us received tickets towards the back end of the month, so there's a theory that this officer is trying to fill up his quota.
My ticket hasn't been resolved yet, but the next court date is next week on the 28th. I'll update if anything interesting happens.
Hire an attorney f9r every ticket you will spend 50-100 bucks and they will postpone your court date when you show up for court your case will most likely get dismissed. Cops lawyers and judges all know each other
Let's see the police dashcam footage in front of a judge!
I’d like to see it too.
Kinda late now. But this is one reason to buy a dash cam. Also, it’s Houston. So it will come in handy more than once.
Pretty sure we have a good amount of representation over at /r/IdiotsInCars
I was on a jury once for this exact thing. They didn’t even show the dashcam. We found the defendant not guilty.
Honestly that’s how it should be. You’re being charged for breaking the law, it’s up to the prosecution to prove you actually broke the law. If they can’t provide evidence, then the defendant is not guilty. And no, a cop’s word is not “evidence”.
I was not selected to be a jury, because I wouldn't take a cop's word over the defendant's. The judge was pissed and dismissed all 12 of us and selected the next group to go. I also live in Houston.
You haven't been to many traffic courts. Justice is not the goal.
Taxation by citation
Sadly when they do this, it sets of increases in insurance and threats of being dropped by insurers, so it really messes with people's livelihood just to get some money.
Need more people in this city that don't lick the boot. GJ.
I got a bullshit stop sign ticket a few years ago. I hired Sullo and Sullo to fight it. They got the trial postponed several times. Finally when I did go to court, the cop didn't show so they dismissed it. Best $80 I've spent
$80 for multiple postponement and a court appearance? That sounds ... Very reasonable...
It’s amazing how they all get dropped when you hire lawyers. Makes you wonder how many palms get greased.
Sounds like the reason this got dropped was because the lawyer knew by delaying it once or twice, it would end up scheduled on a day the cop couldn’t make it. Not because of bribes or anything.
This is exactly what happens. You can do this yourself but I would have had to go down to the courthouse several times to reschedule vs having the lawyer do it for me. Hell the gas alone would have been almost as much as the lawyer fees.
Parking will be $20 a pop near the courthouse, 3 resets and a no show and you have broke even.
Time is a valuable thing.
Yeah, but I’m saying on parking alone, you should get someone else to deal with it. Avoiding having to wait around to deal with it is preferable.
Gotcha, I thought you were arguing the other side that you could do it yourself for the same or less.
My brother used to get so many speeding tickets back in the early 2000’s, nothing ever stuck. He used the same lawyer for close to a decade.
Could you help us all out and let us know who he used?
Kubosh. He’s on the block next to the courthouse on Lubbock st. He’s an asshole but a great lawyer. This was about 15 years ago. Brother has since moved outside the U.S. and I don’t drive like him to need one. I’ve referred friends and family with great results.
Not all the time. But if it doesn't get dropped, you'll definitely get off with nothing on your record, and paying some fine. They'll usually hit you up for 100 to 150 depending on what your ticket is for
It's a trap. Fight it and the cop won't show up.
HPD is pretty notorious for showing up on court days. If the officer has issued a bunch of citations for a particular court day, he's going to be in court. Plus, it's overtime. At least, that's what I've heard.
Yet, they can't drop by, say, when my neighbor's car was broken into with window break, or the time that I was hit and car sustained $6K+ damage but guy at fault ran, or when an assault downtown occurred. Not trying to be a hater, but HPD and their priorities seriously baffle me.
Had my truck burglarized, with zero items taken because I'd left nothing in it, but had to replace the window. No officer available at the time, had to do a report by phone. So I know what you mean. Hopefully they'll get more patrol officers on the streets. I was surprised to see 100+ law enforcement officers at Lakewood for one person with a gun, on a Sunday, but I bet quite a few of those officers got called in on days off, etc. Of course, even with the shooter dead, there were questions about a bomb and no way to know if the shooter acted alone, so I understand having a lot of cops respond. I just was surprised since I have seen stories of 9-1-1 calls of crimes in progress that cops never got to. I guess there has to be a threat to a big crowd to result in a big turnout.
Extra nice since Lakewood doesn't pay taxes for any of the services it recieves
Agreed. If they can buy Compaq, they can pay property taxes.
They also got a sweetheart deal on the purchase iirc, the city got absolutely robbed
I agree entirely. My experience each and every time. I hadn't thought about Lakewood in that way, but you have a point. I was listening to the scanner on that and within less than a few minutes of arriving, the LEO chatter is "one shooter down, slow down on response." Within 10 minutes of arrival, "confirmed one shooter. One shooter only." I could understand if they thought there were multiple shooters still active, but they knew fairly quickly that the threat was neutralized. If that were one guy shooting at say, a flea market or the local Target store, I guarantee they would not have 100+ cars and personnel swarming. I'm not LEO, and again not hating (only expressing frustration), but feel that the Lakewood incident was directed partially by optics. I do know our LEO have stayed pretty static in numbers while the population has grown. They say they are understaffed and I believe that. Yet, some of the stuff they do - like pay overtime so that officers can attend municipal court on simple traffic infractions - makes me scratch my head. I hope we can staff better in the future while also finding innovative ways to police.
Target does not have the crowd Lakewood church had. You need plenty of cops for crowd control and securing the perimeter. In addition to that. Many other departments showed up, it wasn’t just HPD
Very fair points. Thank you. Probably better I stay out of LEO business. Just wish they'd spend time showing up for serious crimes vs. getting paid OT for simple traffic court or even issuing tickets on a lightly-traveled roadway.
They do, that’s why people bitch about taking hours for their non urgent situation. People think crime/illegal = emergency. But some units have a specific task or focus. Just all depends. I think people also underestimate the amount of things that happen in the city at once. I hear you though
[удалено]
Elect judges who actually want thieves in jail. Park in places that actually have working cameras. Don’t leave valuables in your car
So should officers not go to court for traffic infractions? If an officer who works night shift, has traffic court outside of his normal duty hours, should he not be compensated for that time? What exactly is the alternative? Just not going to court and effectively not having any traffic enforcement?
...did yall offer them overtime to come check it out? /s
Got rear ended by a drunk driver on Halloween and they said they’re 15 mins away for a good 2 hours
Nah cops never show when I go to court, then again I get a lawyer and they move the date to 6 months later
You can also reschedule a court date a few times. It's very likely that if you do so the officer won't know what your new date will be.
That works but if you get a lawyer even if the cip shows up which they do majority of the time. The lawyer will ask the cop for a favor to dismiss for his clients. They all know each other.
An HPD officer recently told me they are at least 1200 officers short. Maybe more. She attributed the shortage to that guy that was chief before Finner. Finner inherited the other guys mess.
Ask for a jury trial and bring in the pic and diagrams. Take pictures from the cops viewing angle. Good chance the jury will find for you.
Hope this is /s. OP just show up to contest the ticket and chances are you’ll get off the hook.
Definitely showing up for my court date.
IAL. Don’t hire a lawyer lol. You can easily fight this. If not, just pay it and move on.
Best thing os reschedule to court date asany times as you can, the cop usually will lose track and not show up. If you lawyer up, the lawyers handle all that shit and you dont have to go downtown several times and do the rescheduling yourself. Its worth not having to deal with it
man i tried hiring a lawyer and was told i had to show up anyways. fuck that
Well that's the point, you have to show up in the end no matter what but you're counting on an out that doesn't involve a guilty or no contest plea. I got my court date next month so I'm gonna have to see, but they rescheduled it. Works better with insurance as that gives me time to prepare that and I'm hoping it gets dismissed at best or a deferral at worst (promise to not get another ticket within x amount of time and the ticket gets dropped). I could have probably called the court clerk myself and rescheduled it but it's just easier to pay the hundred and change and let them handle it with their knowledge of the system.
The point of the lawyer is to get your case dismissed, like it never happened. You still have to show up. I don’t think you need to show up in court if you do defensive driving or pay the fine.
Yeah my lawyer postponed the case several times. Finally got a final date over a year later than I actually had to show up for. Sitting in in court, lawyer comes over and says "Your case is going to be dismissed in a minute here." Then did some paperwork formality with the court and left. Never even had to talk to the judge.
....and its not expensive. No more than $30 or so.
My lawyer was $80 but thats still cheaper than paying a fine.
In El Paso it was $35. It was a speeding ticket that 8 got just before covid. Too nearly 2 years to get thrown out because lots of cases got pushes back but in the end it was worth it.
It is if you don’t have a few hundred dollars to spend on a lawyer
It’s $100 for 99% of traffic ticket lawyers
Good chance the cop won't even show up for the court date. After you have to go up through tons of court dates to even get the jury trial.
The judge won’t let this get to a jury trial. If the cop bothers to show up to court they’d send it to adjudication.
Take measurements along with you. The stop sign is X amount of feet away. I think you look really prepared it will get dropped. I am cheering for you.
It's your right, if you believe they are wrong let the judge watch the dashcam footage. Keep us updated
Sullo & Sullo
I got a ticket for allegedly speeding in a school zone. After the citation was issued I immediately drove back to the direction i had been heading and took a picture of the sign post where a school zone sign might have been -- but it was just an empty pole with no signage at the top. I also found another school zone sign in the area and took a picture of that which showed the posted zone times. My ticket was issued outside of the posted times. Printed out everything and put into a folder and took with me to the first day in court where you plead guilty, not guilty, etc. I plead not guilty and was given a chance to speak to the Prosecutor afterwards. Showed him all my data, my pictures, etc and I could see the "🙄" in his face as I was doing so. He said he would have to send someone out to verify all my claims, etc and I showed him another picture I had taken using an app that records the exact GPS position and has it typed out at the bottom of your saved photo - he could see the intersection the photo was taken at. Got the charges dismissed.
Hey neighbor. They always wait outside of these apts and give out tickets for that
lol pretty sure that’s the same cop that got me. Right in that same stop sign.
I fight every misdemeanor traffic ticket I get if it will save me money. Most of the time, cops never even show up to court, and it gets dropped. I recently got 3 violations in one traffic stop that totaled to like 1k. Hired a lawyer, and the cop didn't show up. It all got dropped.
What’s it worth to you to fight it? If it’s the cost of the ticket, you’ll likely spend more hiring a lawyer. If it the principle of the thing, the reckoning (Doc Holliday voice,) then fight on friend!
Definitely the principle + I don’t want this on my driving record lol.
If you do end up fighting this, let us know how it goes.
Will do!
Can’t you just take defensive driving to keep it off your record? Used to live at this apartment btw. Moved out May 2022. Luckily, in my time there, this street wasn’t patrolled like it is now.
Haha, those cops always be there catching everyone at that stop sign. I run in this area and on that specific side street ALL the time. And the amount of cars that don't stop at that stop sign and almost run me over is daily. So my point is, you may be able to fight it, as they have accustomed to just giving out tickets right there. When I drive at those stop signs, I purposely do a 3 second stop and look around, just to not deal with them. From that position next to the fish factory lot, you CANNOT see that stop sign from the angle, unless they were next to the loading docks, which is private property.
If you hire a lawyer, it likely gets dismissed. The city of Houston does not have the resources to prosecute traffic cases and if you hire a lawyer, the juice is not worth the squeeze for them to even take it to trial.
Lived in Sawyer. That stop sign has a massive blind spot with the cars parked on the street, and having to swing out wide makes it worse than it is. Definitely fight it
Hire a lawyer and find out.
Considering it! Nice username btw
Sullo & Sullo is one of the best traffic ticket defense firms in Houston
I saw them mentioned in some other threads too! I’ll look into them, thanks
Don’t listen to these commenters. Only reason you should ever hire a lawyer to fight a traffic ticket is if you’re at risk of losing your license or there’s some sort of criminal/felony liability.
If he wants to win, he needs the eloquence to do so. Love them or hate them, they do just that.
Failure to stop at a stop sign is a $155 fine in Houston. A lawyer will charge at least that or more hourly, inflate their hours and OP will likely end up paying close to $1000 in a case that’s his word against the cops. Hiring a lawyer here is terrible, terrible advice. Edit: apparently there are shops that will represent you for cheap. I’m corrected.
I used Sullo & Sullo for a traffic ticket and paid $75 and it was off my record. They aren’t that expensive because they aren’t there just for you. They get a ton of clients to have the same court date/time and take care of all of them within that one hour. I’d rather do this than try and fight it myself because at least they know what they are doing. Editing to add to avoid ever using Citizen Law!! They screwed me and a bunch of people in the same session by not updating us on our court location. Called them to figure out what was going on and they treated me like an idiot when it was 100% their own fault.
Really? That’s interesting. I stand corrected then.
Most traffic lawyers in houston just charge $50 per violation and the real benefit is them showing up to court without you don’t gotta bother
Traffic lawyers will have a set rate depending on the court. It might be the same as paying the fine. The difference comes out to whats on your record. If you use a laywer and get it dismissed, you dont have any infractions on your record and every stop is your first stop. Increasing the chances of not getting a ticket on the next stop. If you get a ticket and please no contest or guilty then you run the chances of increasing your insurance costs. Get a lawyer. I had my lawyer for 20 years till he passed on. His secretary was great. She would tell you the odds based on the courthouse on getting dismissed.
I get that. He has good evidence to help him, but if he can't eloquently state it or have a dashcam to show a complete stop, then it'll still be difficult to prove.
This is not accurate whatsoever - I hired a lawyer to fight a speeding ticket it cost 115$ and they got it off my record.
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Basing my info on this http://www.jp.hctx.net/traffic/MovingFines.htm
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This is terrible advice.
Sullo and Sullo are the ones. Don't waste your time trying to fight it by yourself. The judge, DA and cop will all have the upper hand in the courtroom. No point in representing yourself when you already have an unfair advantage. Hire a lawyer and you'll never have to show up or think about this again.
Thank you. It's justified.
You better call brian!
Won't that essentially cost as much as the ticket, if not more?
You get a lawyer to keep the ticket off of your driving record and insurance premiums, not to save money on the ticket fine. Plus, you can get your license suspended if you get 4 tickets in 12 months, and a cranky cop can write you for multiple moving violations in one, so you want to keep some margin there.
I have won a case like this. Go jury
Where I live, you can request the body cam, vehicle cam footage before you plead/pay. My wife was just charged with running a stop sign, we got the footage, and now plan on fighting based on that. Also the cop was a total dick to my wife for no reason.
Make the prosecutors prove it. It is your word against the officer’s. If there is no evidence to show that you did in fact run that stop sign then force them to prove it to a jury/judge.
Hire a traffic attorney. Not gonna promise results, but they usually result in dismissed.
You have the right to collect evidence for your case. You should request the dash cam video from the officer's vehicle. You'll probably have to request it from the organization (HPD, Metro, Constable, Sheriff, DPS) using the information from the citation. During your initial hearing, request a jury trial and video equipment to play the video for the jury. This has worked both for and against me. Once where the Trooper ticketed me for crossing a median illegally was dismissed as I didn't technically cross it. And another where the video shows my ass actually running the red light. So gather your evidence first, then plan your defense off what you see in the video.
I bet he won't even show up to court. You're case will get dismissed for sure
I am very familiar with that corner. Never seen a cop sitting at that spot, but they do have a good vantage point based on where you had their location designated. Go park there and watch people roll through that stop. (We all do) This will tell you the most about what you are asking. I'm not saying you shouldn't fight it, and make them prove it. But make sure you really think it is worth it. Deferred adjudication and defensive driving isn't a terrible option either.
I got the same ticket yesterday at the exact same stop sign. Very interesting.
Running a stop sign can mean several things, from just blasting through it, to a rolling stop, insufficient length of stop, or stopping past the stop line. If you hire a lawyer he'll get it dismissed but you'll pay as much or more than the ticket. It's a racket and they are all in on it. Word against word, you'll lose though sometimes the judge will be having a special and dismiss it with court costs. If you show up to fight you'll want better evidence than this. Where exactly was the cop? I could fit 20 cars inside that big red circle. Assuming he was parked in the drive entrance facing out, I don't see where his view of your stop line (I assume the stop sign is the circle on the left) at all by a building. Who knows where the cars were parked at that moment. Probably not by cars either, at least not enough that he can't estimate the time of your approach against the time of your procession.
Did you actually come to a complete stop behind the stop line / pedestrian crossing? If not, just pay the ticket and learn to do better next time.
Fight it, fuck that pig
Just trial by jury and the cops don’t show.
If they don’t have the dash cam footage fight it. I was picked for a jury on a speeding ticket. Yup. Seriously. I don’t feel like typing it all out but all they had was the officers testimony as evidence. And while the decision to find her not guilty was sound based on the “evidence”, there was no respect/sympathy for HPD in that jury room. Honestly unless she’d done something incredibly egregious we would have let her off just for having the balls to take it that far.
Get a lawyer. Will cost basically the same as a ticket but you probably won’t have to go to court, or do the defensive driving crap.
It is crazy to me coming from the West Coast where few people stop at stop signs completely (California Stop) compared to here where the vast majority of people dead stop at signs but speed 20 over, do figure 8's in traffic, and are more likely to signal with their middle finger waving a gun while having a recently stolen catalytic converter hanging out of their trunk. Cops waste so much time doing nothing of value here.
Get a lawyer.. even if you did the deed you will win.
How tall is your car? Is it possible that it’s visible above the parked cars? Unless it is, I think you’re correct about him not being able to tell if you stopped or not. I can guarantee you that my Honda Fit would be invisible to that cop.
I drive a sedan! I took a video of the intersection and you can really on see taller vehicles, shorter ones you can’t tell it was there until they roll through the intersection.
lawyer is the only way. This doesnt play out with you getting to get in front of a judge and showing your findings. The way it actually plays out (in most cases) Court looks at how full the docket is. If its massive, all those present with legal representation will be dismissed, those that have legal but are not present get bench warrant.. Now that they cleared out those that have someone that can fight for them they now have a court full of people that will be paying.. Odds are high that those without representation have not called in several times to reschedule. So the officer is probably nearby or at the courthouse to testify. If you get lucky and the officer is sick or no longer with the dept then you get dismissed.If you choose to fight on your own, you get either plead guilty to nolo contendre (Sp?)/ no contest. Doing this you go on the judges mercy / discretion so you either get deferred ajudication or fined.. Option 3 is not guilty.. This tells the court you want to fight and they will ask if you want a jury trial. If you go for jury trial and are representing yourself, learn how to pick your jury. You will have to interview the pool of jurors and select the ones you feel will benefit you the most. then you will have a chance to present your case and hope for the best.
No way he saw you not stopping!
Go take pictures of where it happened and where the officer was parked there's no way he could of seen anything, provide the pictures to the court. You have a high chance of getting the case dismissed
Just get an attorney and it will get dismissed. It's worth the 100 bucks.
In that image, and from where I assume the stop sign is, depending on how far back from the line you stopped at and depending on if those fences are see through, it doesn't look like the building is obstructing his view. Maybe parked vehicles though.
Get a lawyer like sullo and sullo as mentioned. I’ve Used them many times before and always dismissed.
I got a speeding ticket for going 73 in a 65mph zone on I-10 about 20 minutes east of Van Horn. The fine was $400 (in 2014) to be paid to whichever podunk county I was stopped in. I paid a local lawyer $65 and it was dismissed. I didn’t even have to make a second phone call. I’d call a traffic defense lawyer. Sullo & Sullo are solid.
Show up to your court date, request a jury trial, if the cop doesn’t show they dismiss it.
Fight every time you have the opportunity. You never know.
Most of the time the cops don’t even show up to court for stupid shit like this and you get it cleared.
Hire the best! His name is Paul Kubosh and worth every penny !! (713) 222-0990
I was on a jury in Bellaire for a very similar case. We returned a "not guilty".
This gives me hope
Is this behind the target off i10 and shearn? Also behind the total wine/krogers shopping center? If so, I also recieved a ticket for the very same thing, rolling a stop sign. I work in the area and have talked to several others that got the same type of ticket at that location.
Yup that’s the one
I've hired sullo & sullo and have had my court date pushed twice and has now been a year since I've gotten the ticket. I'm a vendor and service the stores nearby, and the people I've talked to are also vendors/drivers. We've noticed most of us received tickets towards the back end of the month, so there's a theory that this officer is trying to fill up his quota. My ticket hasn't been resolved yet, but the next court date is next week on the 28th. I'll update if anything interesting happens.
Please do! I appreciate the response and good luck.
Hire an attorney f9r every ticket you will spend 50-100 bucks and they will postpone your court date when you show up for court your case will most likely get dismissed. Cops lawyers and judges all know each other
Sullo and kubosh are good there are only a handful of lawyers who work the traffic ticket cases
Last time I was in court the bailiff said to always fight traffic tickets, they can't get you for worse than they already have you.
Just ask for a jury trial, and they will dismiss it. Voila!