followup: Problem dismissing speeding ticket

I just got in a letter yesterday from "Edwards County, Rocksprings Texas, JP
Marjorie Merritt", the totally *DIFFERENT* judge and *DIFFERENT* court that
was quoted by the LEO on the ticket. The phone # listed was *NOT EVEN
CLOSE* to the one listed on the ticket itself or the "info page" supplied by
the LEO for where to appear or how to contact the judge. The letter informs
me that I failed to appear in court nor did I contact them in the allotted
time and unless I immedately send in the $155 fine by money order, they will
add $325 to the fine and I will have to pay both. I find this very strange
and I recall when talking to the balif at the gonzalez court, they
recognized the LEO's name. I will have to wait till monday to call the
Edwards county folks up and find out what is going on. I assume the LEO
used the wrong form for the ticket???? Does the highway patrol work for
different jurisdictions and have to keep track of what area they are in so
as to issue the correct ticket?

On a better note, I did hear from a fellow biker who got a ticket at amstrad
lake (about where I was I think) and immediately got approval to take
defensive driving. He was only doing 77 in a 70 which he thought was
chickenshit but he didnt have the same problem I got with the wrong form
used by the cop or the LEO putting down the wrong judge. I will wait till I
talk to the jp before complaining to the AG dept of texas.

 

If the court name and address on the Ticket (not some piece of paper the
officer gave you) is incorrect that makes the official document invalid and
subject to dismissal. You may want to get in touch with an attorney in that
area very quickly. Present all your evidence to the lawyer.
At this point the judge doesn't have to play nice because you didn't make
contact with the right people. In the eyes of the court you are a criminal
at this point and have very little rights. You've already been found guilty.
More than one of my friends have spent a night in jail on this type of crap
and there is very little recourse on this. Failure to appear can be
considered contempt of court and judges have ultimate power on contempt of
court charges.

 

I went to that maps.com place and set the origin of the map to be exactly 30
miles from sonora. At that location maps.com told me I was in edwards
county. However, after I got my ticket I got back on 377, drove about 5 or
so miles and then saw that sign "30 miles to sonora". If I back up the
origin about 5 miles further from sonora then i am in val verde county.
When the dps got me on radar does the device automatically attach a milage
stamp or lat/long? ie: I assume the LEO set his odomoter to 0 when he left
sonora or had some way to tell where he was located. He was coming from
sonora and i was heading there. Moving the origin of the map slightly one
way or another can put me into a 3rd county so several must intersect about
30 miles from sonora. Maps.com does not show county lines so I have to move
the origin and then re-center to get a county location printed up. I dont
really care what county i was in as long as i can take a ticket dismissal
class (experienced riders course actually). The LEO possibly turned in the
ticket to the wrong jurisdiction. I any event, I contacted val verde prior
to the "trial' and they have me on record as asking for defensive driving so
there is no "trial" that I can show up and ask for dismissal?? Since the
Edwards County people got my name and address, they must have seen that the
appearance location was val verde county, not edwards. At least the val
verde people called me up, the letter I got from edwards county was almost
illegible, looked like a copy of a fax and they had to mark out and change
the area code so I guessing 830 for the aread code as that is what the val
verde area code is.

Anyway, after searching the internet for an hour I finally got the name of a
lawyer who actually lives in rocksprings. A search for lawyers using
findlaw services for the 78880 edwards county zipcode gets a list of lawyers
as far north as dallas. Not a single one from anywhere near rocksprings
showed up. Anyway, I called up the lawyer and left a message for her to
call back and give me her fax so I can send copies of the ticket and letters
to her. I will only hire her if she can get the ticket dismissed outright
otherwise I think it is better to take that dismissal class and pay the
court costs. If the edwards county people press me to pay the $325 non
appearance then for sure I will have to hire her.