In ohio is it legal for a police officer in his own vehicle on the property of a townhouse complex to give you a ticket? Ok here is the set up. I was having a bbq with family and friends Friday night and about 11pm I walked from the back of my townhouse to the side of the building to make a phone call. I am leaning up against the building looking for my friends number and I hear a car door shut behind me, I turn to see a police officer walking from a green ford explorer (not a city police car). He starts yelling at me asking if I see some girls in a car and that I shouldn't be peeing on the wall in front of them. I tried to explain I was not peeing on the wall I was trying to make a call, but he started threatening me saying "do you want to go to jail, just do what I say or your going to jail". I put my hand behind my back as he said, then he went thru my pockets, as he was doing that I tried to tell him I was just making a phone call, again but he kept threatening to take me to jail. he said if I just went with what he said I could just go on my way. so then he made me sit in a the dirt where there is usually a mud puddle but we have had no rain. I asked if I could sit in the grass next to that and he said " I said sit there indian style or your going to jail". I sat there for 30 minutes because he said he had no tickets in his car ( gee I wonder why) so we had to wait on police cruiser to bring a ticket. The second cop had no ticket so I sat there for another 15 minutes waiting for another cruiser to bring a ticket. Meanwhile I am sitting in the dirt whole in front of my own townhouse, being humiliated in from of my friends family and neighbors, for something I didn't even do. Another neat thing was the car with girls in it was on the other side of the parking lot behind 2 big trucks, so I couldn't even see them, and they couldn't see me. On the ticket the officer wrote that I was urinating on the parking lot in front of 2 girls. Where I was standing, when approached by the officer, up against my townhouse, there is about 20 feet of yard before the parking lot even starts then another 200 -250 feet to the left was where the girls were. My girlfriend came out and asked the officers what was going on and they yelled at her to go back in the house, even though all these neighbors were allowed to stand out there. So I told her to go get a pen and paper to write down their names and badge numbers. Then they picked me up threw me in the back of a cruiser. They would not give their names or numbers. They did not end up taking me to jail but gave me a ticket for disorderly conduct. I am 28 and have never had as much as a speeding ticket! I am just wondering if this is something I should contest? I mean I was in the yard around my own townhouse when this all went down. The police were never called to my bbq either, so what was he doing in his own vehicle in the parking lot? Checking those girls out? I will appreciate any info, I would like to keep my record clean.
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