Wisconsin Traffic Violation?

Question

I was pulled over last night along a county highway about 3 miles out of town. It was in fact a town officer that pulled me over, and said that he had clocked me approx 3 miles back doing 35 in a 25. He was going to give me a warning but it came back that I had a partially unpaid fine with the same county and my license was suspended. My fault, but when I asked him to see the gun for the speeding ticket, he told me he cleared the gun after citation. I know for a fact that most officers in the area ask you if you would like to see the gun, and I was polite about it. I also questioned why he had followed me and pulled me over 3 miles outside of town. He had only turned on his lights about 2 3/4 miles outside of town to pull me over. He said that he did not want to pull me over in town due to traffic. It was 10:30 at night, and there was maybe 1 car that I passed my entire time driving through town. There were also plenty of lit places in town to pull a person over besides on the dark desolate highway. I brought this up to him about why he wouldnt pull me over earlier, and he said that he did not have to turn on his running lights in town and that it was ok that he followed me all the way out there. He also told me that he had clocked me from a bank parking lot with approx a 10 foot elevation, and that he had to back up and come out to get me. I know I was not going over 30 an hour through town, and he would have not been able to keep a clear line of sight on my car the entire way. Is this enough to hold up in court and possibly at least have the officer reprimanded? It was totally creepy to be pulled over way in the middle of no where and have him harassing me. Any ideas would be helpful. I do plan on taking this to court to at least have the points put back on my license. I know the suspension was my fault, I can take responsibility for that but the speeding thing is whacked.

Answer 1

While you may think the 10mph over is not a good reason, in reality it is more than justifiable to stop yours or any vehicle. A vehicle traveling 10mph over the speed limit, usually indicates to me that the driver is not paying attention or possibly impaired. As for the distance outside of town, The Officer was more than likely running the registration of your vehicle and observing your driving to look for signs of impairment.

No Officer in WI or anywhere else in the US, has to show you the Radar unit readout for any reason whatsoever. It can be done as a courtesy, but that decision is up to the Officer entirely. Since you yourself said that there was barely any traffic and had only passed one car, it's reasonable to believe that your vehicle was the same one he had tracked on radar. So that argument and you feeling "harassed" are subjective at best.

You can take it to Court and give your side to the Judge, but I really don't think any of the arguments you give will hold up.

BTW, you are given demerit points for a traffic violation, you don't "lose" them.

Answer 2

there are several reasons why he might have waited so long to pull you over. If you live in a small town, you probably have a small dispatch station. It may have taken some time to run your places and get the information back. Officers do this for their own safety (so they can be extra cautious if the vehicle is registered to a violent felon). Another reason he may have followed you is if he suspected you were under the influence. If you swerved over the center line that would give suspicion and probable cause that you were drinking, subjecting you to either a breathalyzer or FST. Most likely the judge will argue that you shouldn't have been driving initially, and if you didn't break a law you wouldn't be in this situation. If you hire a lawyer, they will argue that you were not shown the radar gun and also request that the officer show the court the calibration records for the gun. Theres a good chance if you lawyer up you will get out of the ticket.  

Answer 3

Separate the incidents.  Comply to clear previous violations.  

Document as best you can the incident in question.  List as many details as possible.  Organize the list into chronological order.  Have this statement notarized.  Forward a copy of the statement to the governor, state attorney general, congressional representative, senator, local chief of police, local news media, and take the statement to court for official entry into the record of proceedings.  Maintain the original for yourself in a safe and secure document file.

This will serve several purposes.  It will alert public officials of potential misconduct of a police officer.  Your statement could be the first complaint against the officer or one of many.  The point is to document potential misconduct and or initiate corrective action.  Citizens must be proactive about law enforcement.   Inappropriate conduct must be addressed.

Answer 4

Pulling you over outside of town like that, I'm wondering if

he was intending to make a pass at you if you're a woman.

Sounds like he just wanted to pull you over. I hope everything goes well in court.

I know a lady who got pulled over like that and the Officer said

he would let it go if she got in the back seat of the police car

with him.

Edit- To the police officers here, whether you

admit it or not, there are some bad ones.

This really happened in Illinois!

Being pulled over in the middle of nowhere

is strange.

Answer 5

The key point in your question is:  You have a suspended license and were operating a motor vehicle. You may be able to fight the speeding ticket, but the Driving while Suspended will still stand.

And yes, he can follow you out of town to make the stop.  It is not "harassing" you to stop you for a violation.

Quite possibly the officer was only waiting for registration and D/L information back on your car before he made the stop.