Had the same thing happen to me a few years ago.  Went through yellow light, got pulled over, cop ran lic. and reg. found nothing wrong so he asked to search my car.  I said no, he brought K-9 cop down, dog sniffs car, finds nothing wrong, I get ticket for running a red light.

I decided to fight it since I had a passenger in the car with me who agreed with me that the light was yellow and a buddy who had been following me who decided to stop at the last minute.  Had he followed me he would have been the one getting pulled over.

Went to court, cop didn't show up, I won.  End of story.

Go to court, if the cop doesn't show up (which hopefully he remembers what happened and won't) you win.  

Quoted: Take it to court.     If everybody took every ticket they got to court, the cops would have to stop giving tickets because every one of them would spend his entire day in court and the streets would be patrolled by nobody. I wish everybody WOULD take their tickets to court just on principle. The court systems would choke to death.   Until judges started dismissing tickets en masse.  Which would be a good thing, either way. CJ

A scumbag  ticket lawyer here tried that a few years ago.  Got together ALL his clients and scheduled them for  a court date.  Even had billboards posted.

The judge promptly set EVERYONE'S hearings for 7 am on the 9th. Alphabetical order,  2 hour break for lunch.  If they didn't get to you that day you had to RETURN at 7 am on the 10th, etc.  Failure to show  meant a warrant for your arrest.  

When folks saw that they had not reached the "C"'s by the end of the day it was amazing how many told the lawyer to stuff it and paid the fine.

So much for sabotaging the courts.

Check out Ticketkiller.com

Quoted: I'll have to second the question of "who writes reports on traffic tickets?". if he wasnt behind you he was not in a position to see the light - This really depends on how the lights are set-up. It is entirely possible around here to be able to see the lights if you are sitting at a 90 degree angle to them. No need in being directly behind the vehicle.

We have a bad intersection here like that.  The roads meet in such a way that  the cross traffic light is visible.

Folks will see cross traffic get a yellow then run THEIR red light.   Lot's of wrecks. Whenever I work traffic overtime that's where I sit.  Tagged 11 in one hour recently.   I watched people run it DIRECTLY IN FRONT of oncoming gravel trucks.

As for the officer not showing,  I get 4 hours overtime.  47$ an hour.  Where do you think my ammo budget comes from?  I have one moron playing this "wait and see if he shows" game,  He's reset 6 times.  That's 24 hours overtime and climbing.

Johninaustin pegged it on the overtime.
We get overtime (time& half)  plus get in trouble if we miss court.
I dare say most officers I work with aren't after the "iffy"  tickets.
Again.   Find out exactly what the law states.   Then think it over. If you are still convinced you did not cause an infraction, go to court.  Traffic in my neck of the woods is more of the infraction not "criminal" type of thing.  
If you feel you need a lawyer then spend your hard earned cash.  
If not,  be respectful to the court,  be articulate in your case.  
And no I'm not into shooting peoples dogs..

Quoted: Quoted: I'll have to second the question of "who writes reports on traffic tickets?". if he wasnt behind you he was not in a position to see the light - This really depends on how the lights are set-up. It is entirely possible around here to be able to see the lights if you are sitting at a 90 degree angle to them. No need in being directly behind the vehicle. As for the officer not showing,  I get 4 hours overtime.  47$ an hour.  Where do you think my ammo budget comes from?  I have one moron playing this "wait and see if he shows" game,  He's reset 6 times.  That's 24 hours overtime and climbing.

LOL

In TX, aren't you supposed to yield to a yellow light? Seems like I heard that many years ago...still considered running a light even if it's yellow.

They got me doing the same also in Chicago. Mayor Daley's budget is in the shitter and He's grasping for straws. For a week straight, the Chicago cops would assign 3 squads to one intersection. As one squad ticketed one driver, the other squad would pull into the last cops space and nail the next sucker going through a yellow. They did this all day for about a week and then they moved on elsewhere. Your screwed because if you fight the ticket, you'll lose a days pay and you're gambling with the court system. If you plead guilty, you pay $125.00 and it goes on your record. Or you can take the defensive drivers course ( 4 hr. class ) for $100.00 and the ticket gets thrown out. Your damned if you do .............

I'd have my day in court. In MD, running a red light is a moving violation. Any moving violation is almost guaranteed to drastically raise your insurance premiums - try 10x the fine for the next 3 years.

I have had 3 moving violations in the last 15 years. I have gone to court for each of them - and for differing reasons - have NEVER been found guilty. Off scot free  every time.

Play the race card!

Quoted: Take it to court.     If everybody took every ticket they got to court, the cops would have to stop giving tickets because every one of them would spend his entire day in court and the streets would be patrolled by nobody. I wish everybody WOULD take their tickets to court just on principle. The court systems would choke to death.   Until judges started dismissing tickets en masse.  Which would be a good thing, either way. CJ

I've seen it...

"Whoever is here for a no insurance ticket stand up"
*people stand*
"Your case is dismissed, get out of here"

Take him to court.  If he wasn't behind you, then he was either on the other side of the street or on the cross street.  In either of the latter case, I think you can effectively argue that you had a better pespective of the light then he did.  Take pictures of the intersection to back up that argument.  And don't, even for a split second, show any hesitation in your opinion about the light.  Say it matter-of-factly that the light WAS yellow when you went through the intersection.

Quoted: Play the race card!

Yeah!

Tell the judge you were racing, and got through that interesection so fast the light couldn't have had time to change to red!





Tickets are just the "cost of doing business" when it comes to driving.

Think of it as the one time out of *many* that you actually got popped for doing something illegal.

You can waste your time in court and play that game, or just pay the fine/do the traffic school, whatever.  Either way, the only good that will come out of it is the entertainment value on arfcom...

In the end, it doesn't really matter.

see the public defender before court that day they squash all tickets like that. unless you have a load of tickets.

He was not behind me.  He was on the other street so he couldn't possibly see the light.  I checked it today.  I already chose the court option.  I am sure that I will win after reading some of the suggestions.

Quoted: Take it to court.     If everybody took every ticket they got to court, the cops would have to stop giving tickets because every one of them would spend his entire day in court and the streets would be patrolled by nobody. I wish everybody WOULD take their tickets to court just on principle. The court systems would choke to death.   Until judges started dismissing tickets en masse.  Which would be a good thing, either way. CJ

yeah, 3 hours mandatory overtime, even if the case only takes 15 minutes!  Way to show them bad coppers!  (that is at least $75 in most cases)

Running red lights was New Orleans' pet peeve for a month.  So of course I got a ticket for U$120.  It was curious that the intersection I drive through at least once a week has a 4 second yellow, except on the day the cops were parked there when it changed to a 1.5 second yellow.
Pled not guilty after waiting all day.  Told to come back in 5 weeks.
Day of trial there were 150+ people and 3 DAs.  Very efficient operation.
I walked in the DA said mm, no priors, lets say it's a equipment ticket.  See the judge.  Took 10 seconds and I never got a word in.
Judge asked guilty for equipment, U$25 fine plus cort costs or come back in 6 weeks with a lawyer.
Court costs were U$85 including U$5 for toilet usage (no $hit).

It's about revenue generation.  They make it deliberatly hard for a working person to fight the system.  If I wasn't a .gov employee it would have cost me two days pay, three with a trial plus lawyer fees.

Fritz  - proud contributer to Sheriff Harry Lee's retirement fund.

Quoted: see the public defender before court that day they squash all tickets like that. unless you have a load of tickets.

Could be
PDs tend not to do anything they don't have to, however, and the Federal Constitution  does not entitle you to a PD unless the charge carries a potential jail sentence although local law may provide you with a PD.

In short, if you did this here, the PD would tell you to come back when you had an order appointing him and the judge would refuse to appoint a PD.

I sure do think it says a lot about the "justice system" when mounting a defense is considered by so many to be "playing a game" or "avoiding responsibility."