Just got pulled over in FL with out an endorsement

[screamineagle]

There I was minding my own buisiness in traffic when a sheriff ran my plates and pulled me over. Nice guy but gave me a court date a month from now. Ive got a clean record and will have the class done before then. You guys think I will get this dismissed? Whats the worst that could happen.[sad]Crappy thing about it is I was suppose to be in class today but my paperwork is sitting on my commanders desk.

[onelogue]

Dude that sucks, Im pretty sure you will get a fine at worse. Normally a license can get suspended but if your record is clean and you are honest to the judge they will help you out.

[hula Buell]

Dress nice in court.Get a haircut.Don't be a jackass.Say hello to the officer.Be thankful at all times.Stay humble.Bring some money just in case.Do a burnout out of there when you win...Yeah!!!

[GatorBuell]

If you finish the class first he will withhold adjudication and let you go. You will be in and out in minutes.

[samiam901]

Eagle same thing happened to me in Ohio. When I went in front of the judge he said i was lookin at $1000 fine and a year in jail and told me to get a lawyer. Lawyer said if I got my endorsment before my next court date judge would drop it. So in the end it cost me $300 lawyer $200 lost wages and $80 court costs. Good luck man.

[screamineagle]

From what I read I should end up paying court costs what ever that is. Thanks for the input guys. I'll let you all know how it goes.

[Sayjackb]

good thing you weren't in California, i would have impounded your bike.... ha ha i know I'm evil

[onelogue]

good thing you weren't in California, i would have impounded your bike.... ha ha i know I'm evil

So you are that guy... hmmmm

[blott01]

Got pulled over the other day for my license plate not being vertical and found out my permit had expired 8 days before. So far it has cost me $205 to get my bike out of impound and the tickets total $250. Officer told me when he was giving me a nice lil ride that if I fix my plate and bring a photo and get my endorsement I shouldn't have anything to worry about and they would most likely just drop em. Don't know why he wouldn't just let me ride home if that was the case but they probably plan on most people not doing it. Fingers crossed and WA state popo's suck, not all but most :(

[Nuage420b]

[down][down][down][down] To Skyjack[mad]

[samiam901]

Hey blott1 thats what the cop told me but when I got to court the judge told me $1000 fine up to year in jail and asked how I wanted to plead. I tried telling him I had gotten my endorsement and he informed me to get a lawyer. I think its just their way of spreading the cash around. Prolly wouldnt hurt to talk to a lawyer before you head in there.

[screamineagle]

DANG. Here in FL its a 500 dollar fine or 60 days in jail. Or both for all I know. I dont think they would give me jail time for something so stupid and if they fine me 500 then that would be about what it would be to pay a lawyer and pay court cost. I don't know what to do.

[dave_xb12r]

good thing you weren't in California, i would have impounded your bike.... ha ha i know I'm evil

Wow you must not like having your government job huh? I'd like to know where you patrol so I can go there and hope you pull me over. I would love to put you on national television and make your department the laughing stock of the state.

[Thaloc]

LOL Dave.

Here in WA State we call the Washington State Patrol the Wastapo. Cause it pretty much sums up their attitude. Their motto is Revenue Collection, not protect and serve. I got a ticket for 7 over once from one of those jackasses.

Sayjack, how often do sportbikes even pull over for you? In SoCal traffic on the freeways and with lane splitting legal....I would just say I didnt hear your sirens or see your lights, good luck catching up...




Gotta love the Us vs. Them attitude between most Motorcyclists and LEO's....

[screamineagle]

I guess I was lucky to not get my bike impounded.


Skyjacks day will come when he pulls over the wrong one percenter. ;)

[blott01]

Yeah Staties suck in WA, hope they lose enough revenue with this economy to lay that officer's ass off for pulling me over for an obscured plate. Got to suck being fat and bored at 12 am, sure when I get there I'd do the same to "punk kids that are gonna run from the cops because there hidden license plates"; like i'm gonna run at 12 at night with a passenger on the freeway on a buell :) shoulda bought a busa :p

Joking about the busa, no japs for me!

[drunk_uncle]

Why were you even riding a motorcycle without a license?

[screamineagle]

I had to run a request for the class through my chain of command. It was at the top but I could resist the urge to ride it down the street while I was waiting to class up. First bike.

[screamineagle]

well just got back from court. I was the only person wearing a suit. Crazy meth adicts in there and one guy who has the nazi ss tattoo across the front of his neck. I was really not wanting to go to jail with those people. So the judge called me up and asked me what I plead. I said guilthy. Ask to see my license and and gave me 280 dollars in court cost. It could have been alot worse so Im not bitchen.

[stopie20]

Jail?????? $280????? Here in Indiana its a fifty dollar fine and a "see you next time" no stress no attitude, just happy to take your money...... I do however have my endorsement and have never received one of these..
;)

[screamineagle]

Here is florida we dont have state tax to they have to rape you on everything else.

[Kole_DeWoody]

I got pulled over here in tx for going ten over in a small power wheelie.
Had left my wallet at home on accident that morning.
So had no i.d. with me but i told him my Dl# and
five minuets later he came back and said have a good day and try to keep it under 5 over. not even a written warning. lol:)

[Buell_Cru]

That's BS. I got a careless driving ticket for pulling a wheelie in front of a cop. Obviously didn't know he was there. He had someone else pulled over, let them go and followed me.

[ghost96b69]

Call in, postpone the court date & get a new date, then show up and hope the cop doesn't show. [up] They usually set all of their cases up on the same day, so if you postpone they usually have to go out of their way for one case and if they are working they don't show - it's a slight chance but it increases your odds.

[aaronbuell]

I got pulled over one day on the way home from work of doing 100 in a 55 by a New York state trooper.
The only reason I was speeding was because It started to hailing and all I had on was a tee shirt(my riding jacket had come in yet)and I was about a minute ahead of the storm could see it in my mirrors.
The cop pulled me over 1/2 mile from home told me he was going to arrest me on the spot, but didn't. Then wanted to know way my bike was not inspected I had to explain to him that my inspection would not be on my gas tank where he was lookin but on my lower left fork tube (per NYS law). He then went back to his car and let me stand in the pourin rain for 25 minutes while he handed me tickets thru his window. I think he was mad about the inspection.

Sorry about rambling on with this long story. Got a lawyer had it reduced to 65 in a 55 all together cost me $700

[screamineagle]

Deeeeyam. Im going to get a box of spikes under my seat with a little rip cord. That way when they start flying up on me. I pull, there tires blow out and I go home. :D:D

[bardo688]

screaming that sounds better than my 3/8in steel BB's i carry for anyone tailgating or pissing me off drop em and tear off check your tail every now and then (not a racist BUT) on way home from school going down highway slowed down to make left turn and just about to start got passed on left by some beaner woman with a mustach wish i had a gun cause state just so happens to never patrol that area

[ramjr55]

Hmmm BB's, spikes what would be the coolest evade tool next to just some twisties and a twist of the throttle on the Buell? I'd want a fold up license plate and smoke sceen.

[screamineagle]

Im not a racist and beaner should not be in the same sentence. lol.:D:D:D

[bardo688]

eh oh well you get flustered and everyone who fits in the sterotype gets bashed:p

like my asian friend told me(iam white)" You all look the same" :D

[screamineagle]

You should have chased her down and called boarder patrol on her.:D

[bardo688]

eh oh well makes me what to get a nice truck and huge grill guard and bumper with a huge trailer hitch sticking out the back...this is gunna turn into death race lol

[johnmichael]

Glad to see I am not the only one that cant stand the Washington Highway Patrol. They certainly aren't trying to make any friends are they... I have not had a ticket in 5 years but the last one I got it was because I was trying to get through a red light and I was late for something my kids were in the car and the patrol man was lecturing me like I was his child. He said "your not my favorite person right now". WTF, what a dumace. I think I was doing 12 over.....

[rndrkeagle]

hey Screamin... A couple weeks ago I got profiled by a Texas DPS officer.. He actually made an illegal U-Turn on a 5 lane highway at night just to go after me because I was on the bike. Followed me for like 10 miles looking to see if he could find a good reason to pull me over. Finally did so because he ran my plates and found that the owner (me) of the bike didn't have a Class M endorsement.
I plan on fighting it though because he had no "Probable Cause". I've gone and taken the rider's safety class and will get my endorsement today, but this cop had no justifiable reason to go after a motorcyclist like that. I was not speeding, driving erratically and performed no "Moving violations". He saw a bike and decided to go after it.
Oh.. and if I have to, I will file a freedom of info act to get a copy of his dash cam tapes. When I got off the bike as he pulled me over, I asked, "Did I do something wrong?"

His answer was, "I don't know, May I see your license?"

Well if you don't know if I've done anything wrong... then we should not be talking. You have no "Probable Cause" for pulling me over.

I'll let you all know how things work out.

[konarider94]

please do let us know how it works out. im interested to see if that defense works for you since you in fact did not have an endorsement. I dont think a cop needs probable cause to run your plates and he had probable cause when he figured out the owner of the bike did not have an endorsement.

[afinley]

Cops don't need probable cause to run your plates. And knowing you don't have a license is a pretty good reason to stop you. Getting your endorsement after the fact is not going to help; that is like sobering up to fight a DUI charge. I am afraid you are going to get laughed out of court.

[rndrkeagle]

my defense is going to be predicated on two things... #1 that he profiled me. He was going the other direction and saw a motorcycle. He obviously either doesn't like bikes or is under the assumption that all motorcyclists are law breakers because he then spent the next 10 miles after making the U-turn just following me (very dangerously too I might add since he spent the entire time driving in my blind spot except when I went to make a right turn and he swerved in behind me with his bumper less than 3' from my tire!!!) The fact is there were plenty of other vehicles on the road but he without cause decided to focus his attention on a motorcycle. In the end, I was going to get pulled over for something.. he had it stuck in his craw that I must be a bad person and he was just looking for me to do something wrong.

#2 will be his own admission (which I will get from his dash cam if I have to) that he did not know if I had done something wrong. when he answered my question with the words, "I don't know" he effectively admitted that he had no probable cause. In the end, there are many bikes in this country that are not operated by their registered owners. (Fathers own them, sons ride them etc).

(soapbox rant)
The fact is that this is a violation of a number of laws. Unlawful detention without probable cause, presumption of innocence.

The day we let a law enforcement officer decide it a person is innocent or guilty is the day we lose the foundation that this great country was built on. When a law enforcement officer becomes so convinced that a person is a bad person just because of the type of vehicle he drives, the color of his skin, or anything else that can be seen from the opposite side of the road at night traveling at a closing speed of close to 90 (him going 45 in the opposite direction from me going 45) he's choosing to act as judge and jury and failing to permit due process. We do not live under Marshall law and we are not a police state. They are supposed to enforce the law for the sake of protecting the citizens of this country. They are not allowed to act as a revenue stream. That's why so many police agencies in the US have gotten in trouble for setting quotas on their patrol units.
(/soapbox)

[screamineagle]

drk eagle,

I to thought that maybe I had a case. Lucky for me my dad is a defense lawyer. He said that he get many cases where a cop will run plates and find that the owner had there license suspended. For DUI's ect. They have the right to run your plates and pull you over with the presomption that you are infact the owner of the vehicle.

Judges are easily irritated especialy when your defense is that you are not innocent of the crime but merley shouldnt have been caught. An irritated judge can make things really bad for you. I didnt take a chance. If you have your endorsment before you go in you will probably just pay court cost which are up the ass. But you wont go to jail. I do recommend if you want to argue with him to get a lawyer because they wont take you seriously when trying to present that case. I played it safe but if your a gambling man I say go for it. There has been 3 kids murdered in this state in the past 6 months and these dush bag cops are fishing for unendorsed motorcycle riders. So dumb.

On another note the MSF course is a joke. Did not learn anything. Got a perfect on both tests. Why the hell we should have to take that is beyond me.

[rndrkeagle]

so the process here in Texas is that I plea innocent and will go talk with the County Attorney. The JP may also be at that meeting. I will at that point discuss the merits of the case with them. My expectation is that they will consider the situation, and given that I have an otherwise clean record, will offer to give me deferred adjudication. (nominal fees, no points to my license) If I keep my nose clean for 90 days, then nothing else will come of it. If I get in trouble in the next 90 days, then I get "double whammy'd".

My concern more than anything else is the points. Texas has gone to this points system where every point you have against your license increases your insurance costs and puts you that much closer to a license suspension. It takes like 15 years for a point to expire too.