Alright I know eveybody has been waiting to hear about my day in court so here
goes. I arrived at the court house and waited thru the docket call, with
Williams for a last name I was near the end. I
reafirmed that I would be representing myself. As I looked around I did not see
the officer who cited me so I sat and waited to see what would happen. At about
11:00 the DA informed me that he needed to get in touch with the officer and let
him know that I was there and he needed to be there. Well at 12:20 just before
luch break the Judge asked for recess. The DA informed the Judge that we were
waiting for the officer to show and that he was on his way. The Judge said that
it could be heard after lunch at 2:00. Well I left to grab a bite and waste
another hour and a half. Upon returning to the court room I was greeted by
another full house room for the afternoon session. Well of course I had to sit
thru another docket call. After they got thru the docket call they went thru a
few other cases left over from the morning session. Well at ten till 3:00 the
Judge asked for a recess. I just lowered my head into my hands. As I looked up
the Da saw me and motioned for me to come forward. He informed me that he spoke
with the officer during the lunch break and that he would drop the helmet ticket
violation if I would plead guilty to the passing on a double yellow. I told him
that I was guilty of neither. That I had informed the officer when he pulled me
over, that the car had pulled over to the right hand side of the road and slowed
down to let me pass. He then said that he didn't see how wearing a Tobaggon
could be considered a helmet. I then informed him that wearing anything on my
head would be acceptable under the current statute. I then cited the current
statute vebatim, and informed him that there was no "approved list as provided
by the Commissioner of Hiways". He reaction was "There is no approved list?" I
said "no sir", I then knew that he was not prepared to take this before the
judge, so I asked him if he would like to see my brief. He then asked me "you
have a brief?", I once again said "yes sir" and showed him the 30 page package.
He just shook his head and said dismissed. Moral of the story don't give away
too much info in your first appearances. He had no idea that I was that
prepared, especially representing myself. And asking for a court appointed atty.
in the second appearance may have helped. Of course I was denied the COA because
it was only an infraction, but it made it appear as if I was not that well
versed on court proceedings. Hopefully others will take the reins now that Fred
and myself have shown that it can be done by Good Ole Redneck Bikers. Fight the
Good Fight.
Fast Fred Has A Good Day Too
I had court this morning in Columbus NC. When my cass was called the Assitant
District Attorney dismissed my citation on behalf of the state. I did not have
time to make a statement or motion. After dismissing my case the Assistant DA
in a worried voiced asked if she would be seeing me again.
While this may not be a total victory it certainly is not a loss.
I am now enjoying my earned vacation in WNC and sipping a beer in Asheville as
I type this message.
I suppose my Grandfather and Great Uncle Johnny are chuckling somewhere up
above that some in my generation are carrying on much the same way as they did
in WNC.
FF
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Please see the attached article. If you have a magazine, website, or newsletter for the biker community, the article is for immediate release far and wide. The pdf is in Adobe format. The odt is an open source document and can be opened with MS Word.
The article talks about what is happening regarding helmet laws and enforcement in North Carolina, and how Bikers are preparing to fight back. It also mentions two new tools, Biker Court, and the Ticket Information Tracking System, which have been set up, primarily to help people fight helmet tickets. This is a united, volunteer effort. All bikers are welcome to help and participate regardless of clubs, groups, and organizations you are associated with. There is no user fee. Your non-profit group or organization can get a banner ad for free, if your group helps. There are lots of ways to help. For instance, someone in your group might volunteer to coach, log tickets for others, or perhaps attend a freedom ride.
Once the Ticket Information Tracking System at http://bikercourt.com/portal/ proves to works well for North Carolina, it may be quite possible to expand if for use in other states.
When you register at Biker Court, and log back in, you will be able to see information that is not available to the public.
Unless you get additional privileges, you will not be able to LOG TICKETS for anyone until you request author privileges. If you are a coach, or get a helmet ticket, and are fighting it in court, the administrator will verify this and upgrade your account to editor, which provides capabilities one level above author. Please send requests to upgrade of your account to clerk@bikercourt.com . During the account upgrade process, if I am not sure who someone is, I might ask a security question that is a fairly generic question every biker is likely to know the answer to. The entire reason for this is for security reasons to keep spammers out, so sorry in advance for the inconvenience.
Helmet ticket coaches and presenters are going to be needed from all over the state. Coaches will help bikers fight helmet tickets. Presenters are anyone who is willing to help spread the word about the importance of fighting tickets, and teach people to avoid giving away their rights at roadside stops. Some of the best coaches and presenters will be people who have been through the process of fighting tickets.
If anyone knows of a lawyers who might want to participate in the network, please feel free to contact them, or get the info to either me or Mark Infield. See either www.fullthrottlemagazine.com or www.bikercourt.com for contact information.
Please send any questions or comments about Biker Court and the Ticket Information Tracking System to clerk@bikercourt.com or reply to this email.
Most bikers are not aware of their constitutional rights. One reason why
we are harassed by LEO over helmets is so that they can try and get you
for other things.
I went to www.mfhupy.com and filled out a form to ask them to send me
their constitutional rights card. A few days later, I got was a great
package of MANY cards that I can hand out to people, newsletters, and
also got a free DVD, ...BUSTED, How to Survive Police Encounters. This
was so informative! The DVD shows you how to handle police encounters.
I highly recommend you all get a copy, and show it to your friends.
