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If you go to court in Emporia VA expect to pay. The judge makes a speech at the beginning of the proceedings about how radar guns are checked when the officer goes on duty and how they are checked when they go off duty making any thing you say in your defense here-say. The judge also acts as the prosecution. The officer faces you, but the judge objects for him. I was objected to for trying to present documents in my defense. This is not justice, this is a collection agency, and it is also Illegal.
What they are doing near Emporia VA is illegal. They are violating Virginia Law 46.2-102 “…All officers making arrests incident to the enforcement of this title shall be paid fixed salaries for their services and shall have no interest in, nor be permitted by law to accept the benefit of, any fine or fee resulting from the arrest or conviction of an offender against any provision of this title….”
Sheriff Edwards (434) 348-4200 and Greensville County are benefiting from tickets being written. More tickets mean higher police budgets, higher salaries, and more money for the County budget. The Greensville County Sheriff’s office is currently receiving $1,730,459 as proposed by Greensville County’s Budget for 2010. There total Budget for Public Safety (fire and rescue, 911, Jail Authority, etc..) is $2,575,778, giving The Greensville County Sheriffs Office 67% of the Public Safety Budget or 7% of the total budget for the entire County. This seems a little high as Emporia, Greensville County's County Seat, has the number 2 highest crime rate per 100,000 in VA. There is something going on in Greensville County and Emporia VA that is not right.
Write or call the Governor of VA (804) 786-2211, call The Greensville County Commonwealths Attorneys Office(434) 348-4285 and tell them that there needs to be an investigation into this.
“Laws are supposed to be enforced because they’re laws,” said John Rowe, a former Emporia city manager. “That’s not what I found there. In Emporia, it was all about revenues, and keeping the money coming in.”
Are we living in America or some third world police state? Question the police. They are breaking the law in Emporia VA and Greensville County.
The reason that nothing is being done about the complaints is that everyone says that they don't have any power over the other agency. I called the Governor and the person that I talked too said the Governor has no power over Greensville County. The state police said the they cant investigate with out the consent of the Governor or the Attorney Generals Office. Called the Attorney Generals office and they said that it would be a conflict, because they would defend the Sheriff if the allegations went to court and they advised me to get an attorney.
I'm not breaking the law, the Sheriff is, but I need an attorney. Something doesn’t sound right here. The governor’s office actually told me to contact attorneys from their Bar list to see if they would work pro-bono form me to take this to court. What kind of crap system do you have in VA? No one is in charge, not even the Governor? Make them accountable!
Last edited by Out_0f-State; 06-07-2010 at 01:09 PM..
Reason: New information
I was recently a victim of a police traffic ticket scam.
I was going through Eufaula oklahoma through a known area where police sit on the side of the road, I was going the speed limit.
When i passed the police car, I made sure I was going the speed limit. Also note that my radar detector was dead silent meaning they didnt even have there radar on.
When i got between the 45 and 55 sign, and was approaching the 55 sign the police pulled out waited for about 4-5 seconds and then pinged me with Ka band radar, which registered as a 1 on my radar (which goes from 1 - 5 in radar strength, 1 being the weakest). As soon as they pinged me one time they speed up real fast and pulled me over and tried to claim that I was didnt 50 in a 35.
What they didnt realize is that I have a radar detector in my car and immediately knew they were trying to pull a scam on me, they waited for me to get into the 55 and pinged me with there radar just to get a reading!
Then they pulled me over and claimed i was speeding and they have so called "PROOF" that i was speeding.
Oh god I wish I had a camera in my car and was recording everything. Including my radar detector because then I could prove my case and that they are lie scamming pieces of **** that call them self's police officers.
Im going to plead not guilty and fight this **** on principle, and ill most likely lose. But you know what? Im just getting started.
I recently purchased: thepolicescammed.us
And im building a forum along with some tracking applications using googles API that will allow people to make reports on the locations of where they were being scammed at. As well as database system for tracking ("cities of concern") financial statuses and a ("motive level") for perpetrating fraud against unsuspecting citizens via fraudulent traffic citations.
Im a seasoned web developer and this is the only way I know how to fight back. I will be building the site in my own time. The site will be dedicated to providing information on how to fight back, how to report it and a mini-documentary i am making.
I am following the police around now with a radar detector and a video recorder plugged into my laptop transmitting a live feed to a remote server via cellular wireless/aircard.
Im doing it this way incase they attempt to plant something in my car or confiscate my equipment.
Im going to catch them in the act and when I do im going to sue the **** out of the city and make sure this story gets on the evening news.
I was recently a victim of a police traffic ticket scam.
I was going through Eufaula oklahoma through a known area where police sit on the side of the road, I was going the speed limit.
When i passed the police car, I made sure I was going the speed limit. Also note that my radar detector was dead silent meaning they didnt even have there radar on.
When i got between the 45 and 55 sign, and was approaching the 55 sign the police pulled out waited for about 4-5 seconds and then pinged me with Ka band radar, which registered as a 1 on my radar (which goes from 1 - 5 in radar strength, 1 being the weakest). As soon as they pinged me one time they speed up real fast and pulled me over and tried to claim that I was didnt 50 in a 35.
What they didnt realize is that I have a radar detector in my car and immediately knew they were trying to pull a scam on me, they waited for me to get into the 55 and pinged me with there radar just to get a reading!
Then they pulled me over and claimed i was speeding and they have so called "PROOF" that i was speeding.
Oh god I wish I had a camera in my car and was recording everything. Including my radar detector because then I could prove my case and that they are lie scamming pieces of **** that call them self's police officers.
Im going to plead not guilty and fight this **** on principle, and ill most likely lose. But you know what? Im just getting started.
I recently purchased: thepolicescammed.us
And im building a forum along with some tracking applications using googles API that will allow people to make reports on the locations of where they were being scammed at. As well as database system for tracking ("cities of concern") financial statuses and a ("motive level") for perpetrating fraud against unsuspecting citizens via fraudulent traffic citations.
Im a seasoned web developer and this is the only way I know how to fight back. I will be building the site in my own time. The site will be dedicated to providing information on how to fight back, how to report it and a mini-documentary i am making.
I am following the police around now with a radar detector and a video recorder plugged into my laptop transmitting a live feed to a remote server via cellular wireless/aircard.
Im doing it this way incase they attempt to plant something in my car or confiscate my equipment.
Im going to catch them in the act and when I do im going to sue the **** out of the city and make sure this story gets on the evening news.
So obviously if it was legal to have personal radars there would be more cases like yours. Can't have that happen.. like you said what if you had the cam they would have been screwed!
I was recently a victim of a police traffic ticket scam...
Well, now you've gone and done it. You will soon see the police apologists replying to your message. This kind of behavior isn't common, but neither is it unheard of. Good luck, but where you find crooked cops you sometimes find crooked judges.
Radar detectors are legal in my state in passenger cars.
I dont expect to win in court, the system is obviously setup so that I dont have a chance. But what I can do is make them earn their money in the form of alot of court paperwork. When i take it to trial im going to cross examine the cop, im compiling a list of questions that will take at least an hour lol.
I also just filed a motion of discovery with a long list of items I require.
On top of that I have a lot of pictures and just recently when and made alot of measurements to support my case.
I make 40$/hour and the very act of taking my time to fight it will cost more than the ticket is worth. ($159). Its a matter of principle, im not going to roll over and play nice when I was a victim of fraud in this manner.
Ill go as far as to buy property along the highway and plant permanent signs that state that the police are running the scam and warn people not to go over 25 even in the 55 zone because the cops are getting radar readings in the 55 and claiming it was read in a 25/35 zone.
I filed a motion of discovery in Greensville County VA and it got denied. They would not send me the information that I requested. I called them several times and got the run around. Transferred me here and there. Finally had to talk to Sheriff Edwards, who said that he would have the information at my court appearance. Court date comes, I go into court, and no Sheriff, no information. So, Sheriff Edwards of Emporia VA, is a lying piece of crap!
I got hit with a bogus ticket in the Emporia, Virginia area along I-95 too. Mine wasn't for speeding, it was for the Move Over Law, which at the time was a criminal misdemeanor.
The outrage isn't so much the law itself (a separate rant) but many other things. I'll number them.
1. I didn't do it. If you drive past a cop on the Interstate, that doesn't mean you've violated the Move Over Law, unless other conditions are met. In my case, they weren't. I passed the officer at a safe, slow speed below the speed limit and alongside another car in the left lane. He pulled me over anyway. (He didn't challenge the prudence of my speed.)
2. The cop, a Deputy Jones, was unprofessional. I assure you my tone was neutral and I said very little during the encounter. But he lost his cool. He also mentioned bogus statistics, that of his fellow officers in his area had died on the side of the road from distracted drivers. (The whole of Virginia has lost only one unfortunate officer in the past 15 years in such manner, and his county hasn't lost an officer in the line of duty in over 100 years.) Officers should be trained not to spout on nonfactual information.
3. The cop was a reckless driver himself. He was just finishing up a traffic stop on the right shoulder as I approached him, noting his car was still while his previous victim was pulling away, getting ready to merge back onto the road and signalling. The stupid cop had his lights on, but didn't signal a lane change and just suddenly pulled toward the road, almost entering my lane as I passed. My car and the car immediately to my left were just inches apart as I hugged the left part of the lane, making as much room as I could for the negligent officer. I couldn't slow down safely either, or I would have risked a crash with the civilian on the right entering the road. I was driving my whole family including my pregnant wife, and that stupid cop could've easily killed all of us due to HIS negligence.
4. The cop made major false statements in court. I'm not saying he lied, because I can't prove that he didn't forget what happened (he writes a LOT of citations) and simply testified confidently and read a rote script before the judge claiming I was guilty. But there was a car to my left, which he almost drove me in to, and he testified that there was no one in the left lane. Shameful. He told the judge I had used my crying child as an excuse for my inattention; I had said no such thing. So the only possibilities are that he had a breathtaking loss of memory and misstatement of fact or that he knowingly lied in court under oath, which is a felony.
5. The judge was ethically questionable too. A defendant is supposed to have the right to interview his accuser, but that didn't happen in my case. I also expected the chance to argue my case; nothing doing. The judge let the cop talk all he wanted, then asked me a few questions and ruled before I could start my defense. With all that stacked against me, I still got the charge reduced to a similar, noncriminal offense. I think the judge had me figured for a guy who would bother with an appeal a criminal verdict, and that my case would be strong in a real courtroom.
6. Highway signage is deliberately ineffective. There are 180+ miles of I-95 in Virginia, and the only place the Move Over Law is mentioned is upon entry to the state. One sign over all those miles, are you kidding me? Better yet, the signs contradict the law. That's right, you can comply with what the sign says and STILL violate the law. The sign says "move over or slow down"; that means slowing down is enough. But according to the law, if you only slow down when you can move over safely, or if the cop thinks your slower speed is still too high, you can be cited. So the sign misinforms drivers, perhaps deliberately. The emphasis is obviously not on safety, because better signage would inform drivers and motivate them to comply with the law. That leaves revenue as a motive, and a very shameful one at that. Even if they really believe this law improves highway safety (it doesn't - long story), they let on that they care more about collecting fines and imposing other penalties.
7. Officer feedback was systematically discouraged. This would be a non-issue if not for the items above. On the back of the ticket a portion of it asks you to call a certain number if you want to comment about "the professional behavior or demeanor of the officer..." which sounds like a fine feedback system, but when I called the number, I got the court. The court? What do they have to do with officer discipline? Rude traffic enforcement is not a crime that the courts take up on their own, you start with lawyers. Key to this - the phone number listed was not part of the form but FILLED IN BY HAND, and in the same handwriting as the officer. So, he gets to decide where the people complaining about him call? I imagine the citations are outlined that way to allow offended motorists an avenue to redress their grievances, perhaps the internal affairs department. But if they count on local police to fill in the number, and if the police want to keep internal affairs away, they have a motive to put in the wrong number.
I'm done fighting my particular case, but I do want to do some more background searching on what the officers in Greensville are up to. This guy Jones writes a LOT of speeding tickets, often over 100 in two weeks' time. He seems to focus on out-of-state drivers; I intend to collect some statistics on that. Also, he writes so many speeding tickets for 12, 13, and 14 miles per hour over the limit that something looks fishy. Maybe 10 is his magic number for miles he "gives" people, but there are so few tickets in his record over 15 that I wonder if his radar is calibrated in a convenient way to produce readings of 76-78 mph. So some public records requests are the next step. I also want to call internal affairs on this officer, but I don't know if such a department even exists.
If anyone has proceeded down the internal affairs or records request routes, I'd love to hear your story.
As for the judges, well picture the state as a starving tapeworm ridden glutton, then think of the cop as the hand that grabs you, the judge is the mouth that chews you, sometimes you get spit out much lighter in the wallet, but sometimes that judge swallows, and into the lower gastrointestinal tract you go-prison.
I like the idea of taking over an hour in traffic court though, may as well make them earn it. Talk reaalllllllly sllloooooooooowwwwwwwww for extra time, like how you used to write big to make your essay two pages long back in school.
I took my family from Massachusetts to visit my brother-in-law in North Carolina, unwittingly driving the stretch of I-95 through Emporia that I now see is referred to as the ticket capital of the world. With the posted speed limit of 70, I had the cruise control set for 70, but admittedly, would raise it manually to pass on occasion, possibly going as fast as 75. Wreckless, no; wrong move, yes. I was pulled over by an Emporia police officer claiming I was "approaching 80 mph." He was polite and inquired whether the speedometer had been calibrated (there's nothing wrong with our speedometer), which it has not been. He then issued a ticket claiming I was going 80 mph in a 70 zone. Still debating whether it will be worth it to contest. From these posts, it looks like the best I can expect is to make things difficult for the corrupt system that preys on motorists, especially out-of-staters.
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