Hey guys, I was hoping you all could give me some advice for a traffic ticket I got. Here was the scenario:
I stopped off at my friend's house to drop something off. He lives on a quiet street that branches off a main road. I don't normally drive there, as he only lives a couple blocks from me, but I was on my way out the door anyway. Needless to say, I continued on my way, turned onto another side street to get back to another main road. As it turns out, the street I turned on to is a two way road - there is parking on both sides of the street all the way to where it runs into the T-intersection with the main road. Once I got to the end of the side street (direction I was going), I saw a Do Not Enter sign preventing me from going onto the main road. There is no clear reason why it is there - there are no obstructions to vision on the intersection, the road doesn't narrow at all, and the route wouldn't logically be used as a cut-through for general traffic. With a combination of me being lazy and not turning around and deciding it would be safer to ignore the signs and make my turn rather than do a 3 point turn right in the middle of the road just before a corner, I continued on my way.
As you might imagine, a motorcycle cop just happened to be hiding and watching the intersection. The officer seriously had the summons for failing to obey a traffic sign written before he even pulled me over - he must have just pre-filled it and wrote my license plate and driver's license number on the summons at my window, as the whole thing was done in less than 15 seconds. He had no interest in hearing any reason or explanation. He actually didn't even run my license or plate during the whole thing, so he would've had no idea if my license was suspended or if I had warrants for my arrest, or anything.
Basically, I have to go to traffic court on Friday. I have literally nothing else on my driving record - not even a warning. I do not care about paying the fine, but I really want to avoid the points. I know I can take some course to have the points removed, but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible. When I go to court, should I plead guilty and ask for compassion from the court, or should I plead not-guilty? I find it somewhat difficult to plead not-guilty as I know that I did ignore the traffic sign. I really have absolutely no clue how traffic court works, so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!
I stopped off at my friend's house to drop something off. He lives on a quiet street that branches off a main road. I don't normally drive there, as he only lives a couple blocks from me, but I was on my way out the door anyway. Needless to say, I continued on my way, turned onto another side street to get back to another main road. As it turns out, the street I turned on to is a two way road - there is parking on both sides of the street all the way to where it runs into the T-intersection with the main road. Once I got to the end of the side street (direction I was going), I saw a Do Not Enter sign preventing me from going onto the main road. There is no clear reason why it is there - there are no obstructions to vision on the intersection, the road doesn't narrow at all, and the route wouldn't logically be used as a cut-through for general traffic. With a combination of me being lazy and not turning around and deciding it would be safer to ignore the signs and make my turn rather than do a 3 point turn right in the middle of the road just before a corner, I continued on my way.
As you might imagine, a motorcycle cop just happened to be hiding and watching the intersection. The officer seriously had the summons for failing to obey a traffic sign written before he even pulled me over - he must have just pre-filled it and wrote my license plate and driver's license number on the summons at my window, as the whole thing was done in less than 15 seconds. He had no interest in hearing any reason or explanation. He actually didn't even run my license or plate during the whole thing, so he would've had no idea if my license was suspended or if I had warrants for my arrest, or anything.
Basically, I have to go to traffic court on Friday. I have literally nothing else on my driving record - not even a warning. I do not care about paying the fine, but I really want to avoid the points. I know I can take some course to have the points removed, but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible. When I go to court, should I plead guilty and ask for compassion from the court, or should I plead not-guilty? I find it somewhat difficult to plead not-guilty as I know that I did ignore the traffic sign. I really have absolutely no clue how traffic court works, so any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!