Ok, this has officially turned out to be the worst day of my life I went to staples to pick up a hands free set for my cell phone. As I was about to park my car, I saw an eclipse pull out of the same spot rather quickly, and then the chick in the car started cussing at me for driving reckless! .. I got pissed, pulled upto her and gave her the finger... overtook her car and went by my way..

Anyway so I turned around and came back to pick up the hands free kit, and as I exited the shopping center, I saw a white dodge truck light up it's flashing lights and siren to pull me over.. At first, I wasn't sure if he wanted me to pull over or just move from the left lane, so I moved to the right lane.. But he followed suit... so, at this point, I knew he was after me.. But, being that the truck was unmarked, I didn't pull over, nor did I speed!.. I kept driving at 40 mph [speed limit 50 mph] towards the nearest police station that I knew of, and called 911. Told the dispatch what was happening and that I was uncomfortable pulling over to an unmarked truck. The truck pulled next to me and I did see the driver was in an officer's uniform and kept yelling at me to pull over, and that he was a police officer. But, I was not comfortable, so kept driving.

The 911 dispatch asked my location and sent some regular cop cars over.. As soon as I saw a regular police car, I pulled over and stopped.


However, the officer in the truck [who was indeed a real cop] arrested me for eluding!!

I was brought back to the police station, where I explained the whole story to the arresting officer.
The cop said, it was day time and there was no reason for me to not stop once he showed me his uniform.

He let me go, but said there will be papers in the mail with a court date and all..

Now, first off, was I wrong in not pulling over ?

Second, how bad is this ? How bad will be in the court ?

I'm not going to plead guilty because I was just watching out for my safety and was not eluding the officer at all.

Please comment!!..

 

It passes the reasonableness test, if you were indeed on line with 911 and can prove so in court then you should be ok. In one of my classes we had a discussion about this topic and you did as a former judge advised the class to do, if you felt there was a chance it wasn't an official you did the right thing in my opinion. Also, uniforms can be purchased by the public in some states and online, so if you were going to a police station and online with 911 I would say you should be ok but get in touch with an attorney just to be on the safe side.
You will first have an arraignment and can pled not guilty, then after that there will be a chance to tell the DA your side and they will decide wheater or not to charge you with the eluiding however it does seem that you could be charged with road rage. Did they charge you with road rage also?

If they do charge you with the eluding there will then be a pre trial at this poin if you didn't allready do so GET AN ATTORNEY. This is all just my opinion so don't take it as legal adice in any way ok, good luck.

 

thanks for the input!!

No, they didn't charge me for road rage.. ANother officer told me I could get a copy of the charge on Wed...

I'm def. getting a lawyer.. but I hope this gets junked on the first day!! I feel so shitty...

Plus, I won't get my car until tomorrow.. I hope it stays ok!!

 

why did they want to pull you over, initially ?

 

I'm not quite sure how the law read's in nj but if they charge you with eluding and you can prove you didn't elude I:E: 911 tape. the officer can't come back and charge you with road rage. at lest that's in pa. laywer can avise you best here but I'll bet he fight it for you.

 

So the chick that you flipped off, called the cops & they pulled you over for the incident? Gotta be more to this than that?

If you called 911 you will be fine, just get a letter from the dispatch you called outlining the call, Fred

 

Sounds reasonable, I'm just very confused as to why they wanted to pull you over in the first place...?

 

He wanted to pull me over to talk about the incident at the staples parking lot with the girls. He also told me that he followed me around for a few minutes in the shopping center and saw me speed upto 50 mph.. which is total BS because I'd never do that.. I ALWAYS drive really slow in residential or pedestrian areas.. I guess the loud car gave him an impression I was mashing the gas..

Anyways, he told me he didn't care about any of that.. but I should've just stopped and none of this would'vd happened... But, I didn't stop because I was not sure if he was a r eal cop so I was driving under the posted speed limit to the nearest police station I knew of.. And I told the 911 dispatch what I was doing and why I was doing so..

Then as soon as I saw regular police cars approaching, I informed the 911 dispatch that I see police cars now and am pulling over to stop!

If I was eluding, why would I drive under the speed limit and call 911 !

I'm getting a lawyer, and all I want is the charges dismissed and my record wiped clean.. I have no tickets on my DL, I have no police record, and my car had nothing suspicious in it ...

All this could've been avoided if the arresting officer just gave me an opportunity to explain myself before placing me under arrest.. But, I had to go thru the finger printing and photograh process, before he decided to listen to my story..

 

ok here's what happened.. I was pulling into the Staples parking lot and these chicks were pulling out of the parking spot, rather quick.. But, they thought I was gonna rear end them

So, the chick driving the eclipse started cussing at me, at which point, I flipped her... she flipped and continued to cuss.. so I pulled over to her to ask what her ******* problem was.. but they didn't say anything.. so I over took their car, made a turn, and came back to staples...

They probably wrote down my plate number and called in... The arresting officer did say that this was all about the incident at staples.. and that the girls had called in to report that I was being a "reckless driver" .. If I had pulled over when he flashed his lights, none of this mess would've happened...

 

You received an appearance ticket (DAT- Desk Appearance Ticket) which compels you to appear in court at a specific date and time.

Judging by what you wrote, it will most likely be dismissed -or- "ACD"ed adjourned contemplating dismissal... which provides for dismissal after a certain amount of time with no new charges/arrests. Your age and previous record will have something to say about you.. at court.

Don't lose sleep, but pull over next time!

 

A uniform means nothing...Its the badge you need to see. And being that you are in a car and he is in a truck its kinda hard to see in the cabin and get a good look at the driver. You got a 911 tape and its not a ford crown vic...what color where the lights? Cops around here are a giant pain in the ***. Im down rt. ten in whippany and last week there was a "car show" at JR tabacoo and i went but drove in my car in it. Those bastards where just waiting there for these cars to leave. Every couple that left one got pulled over. One cop even came in the lot and gave me a ticket for no front plate and no inspection sticker. THE CAR WAS PARKED IN A PRIVATE LOT AT A CAR SHOW! Im gonna fight these and see what happens. See thats what sucks about living in a decent area. The cops are bored and the only thing they have to do is bust our *****.

 

In Pa what you did is encouraged by everybody except the guy that wants to pull you over. We seem to have a lot of fakes around here usually trying to pull over young girls. Not sure what the laws are where you are from. Good luck though man I think you should be in good shape in the court room. The thing that sucks the most about it is that it will cost you a lot of money for an atty and for missing work and he'll be getting paid to sit there. Seems like he was just pissed you weren't respecting his authoritah. I think you did the right thing.

 

YOu can wait untill after the arraingment and before the pre-trial to retain an att. so may not cost you any leagal fees that way. I feel they willl drop the charges if you bring evidence you called 911 and were in fear of a fake, white pu truck that should be enough, again my opinion not advice.

 

Actually you may not need the 911 evid. at the arrignment for them to drop the charges, in my opinion Not legal advice, keep us informed.

 

What did 911 tell you? That they didn't know who was trying stop you or that he was an officer? Tape might hurt ya there if they were telling you he was an officer. Safest thing to do is go to a populated area if you are weary if they are a real officer or not. I'm sure there was a safe populated area somewhere, right? Who knows how things can go.

JasonG

 

I've seen those in town. It's roxbury, correct? They have both a silver and white durango now. But nonetheless, it's still very confusing if you've never seen either one pulling someone else over.

 

Cops are getting very creative now a days on their unmarked cars before it was just a corwn vic. I know of 2 pickup trucks that i have seen around here. Both times i saw them they had someone pulled over.

Both were pickup trucks, one a 2500HD the other a reg 1500 with a cap on it. Looked like plain jane truck. Just on friday i happened to look parked on the side of a road and saw a Blue 2500HD with a tool box mounted in the back. Looked to me like a regular work truck. Then i saw the blue lights behind the grill. I gues sit just goes to show you, you never know anymore.

I also know of a green unmarked expedition by my house. I dont know whether its state or not because it is unmarked i believ with regular plates but see the blue lights in the grill.

 

Actual car shows are one thing, but thrown together "car shows" where people act like idiots are the ones that give people bad names. popo drive all kinds of cars, doesnt need to be a crown vic, after all the idea is to catch people being stupid when they think no one is watching. MOST people will act responsible if they see a marked popo, so the old argument that I was driving like an ******* cuz I didnt think anyone was watching wont hold up. As for this thread, You may get away w/the no front plate if you werent driving, but you will be s.o.l. with the inspection. you dont even need to be present for that one. As for Rahul, as long as you were on 911 and stating you didnt think it was a cop behind you, shouldnt be a prob as far as eluding goes. At court you can request 911 tape be admitted into court. a pd will be able to get that for you. good luck.

 

Our County had a rented C5 Corvette.. the gas pumps were near the Sheriff's dept and this car got a steady diet of 89 Octane gas...

 

Your logic makes sense to me Rahul and sorta follows the recomendations I got from State Trooper that taught a defensive driving course in NC. His reco. was that you should go to a populated area and pull over, not necessarily a Police Dept. but if it was close by, I can understand your judgement. He also admitted that it usually will aggrevate the pursuing officer by doing so, but it's something they have to understand. The reason I asked the question to the officer was a friend of mine was baited into a street race by another mustang and beat him and then the car pulled behind him and had full flashing blue lights. I'm talking in the grill, in the interior of the car and both headlights strobing so he pulled over. Then they pulled up beside him and rolled down the window, two young guys goofing off that laughed and then took off. I know, it's not so bad, but if you just had an altercation with someone and they were to make a phone call to a couple of friends with a Durango and not the police, well, it could have been bad for you.