Jeannie P Mucklestone Attorney At Law She's never lost for me yet. My latest victory against the forces of evil (WSP) Kitsap County 15 over in a construction zone (on Saturday). www.muckletsone.com (206) 623-3343 Made my Friday
Jeannie's letter sez..... "The judge dismissed this infraction because the State did not meet their burden of proof after our motions to suppress were granted" .....whatever all that means. Wahoo
Basically. it means that some of the evidence was obtained by the police improperly (lack of probable cause for stopping, failure to ask permission to search without a warrant, etc., etc.) and could not be used by the prosecution. Lacking the evidence, the prosecution wasn't able to make out the probable commission of a violation of whatever statute underlay the charge. BTW, I hardly consider the WSP "the forces of evil." I hope you don't really think that either.
I always used an attorney here in Vancouver that unfortunately retired. I wondered how he got all the tickets dropped. I talked to him in 2001 and he said he hadn't had a ticket stick in WA since '96 and had about 50% success in OR. I was given the documents he submitted to the court on one of them and what he did was flood them with evidence requests. He wanted testimony of the cop, testimony of witnesses, calibration of the radar gun, about 20 items total. I think the courts just looked at that and figured it wasn't worth the hassle.
Sounds about right. Like virtually everyone else, the state has to allocate its resources in the most efficient way that circumstances allow. The data requests tie up staff, keep the cops off the streets and at their desks (they like paperwork as much as doctors do; it wasn't why they got into that line of work), etc. In Oregon, the lawyer only had a 50% success ratio (even though he used his same talents and tactics), which doesn't surprise me.
Well when they turned from enforcing the spirit of the law to pure revenue generation, they became little better than thieves >IMO<. The term used to be "highway men" and they used to be killed for it. Now it's condoned and employed by, and as part of, the government. Had they (WSP) really wanted to just save lives and remind everyone to be safe and all the rest of their handy little rationals, they would have parked along side the road BEFORE the construction zone IN PLAIN SIGHT. People would have slowed down! (But then there would not have been any revenue generated for their paychecks) You can think what you will about them, and I can think what I will. (Mind police be damned as well.)
It's a moot point, which is, innocent until PROVEN guilty. They couldn't prove it....................................
I know that. I was just wondering what the infraction was that was so difficult for the gendarmes to nail down.
