06-22-2008, 01:57 PM
Sijray21 Wrote:Anything over 20mph in VA is reckless OR anything over 80mph is classified as reckless, but i'm not sure in your case.
Anything 20 over, and the officer is granted discretion to cite you as reckless, solely based on your speed. He can cite you for reckless for other reasons without beign 20 over, as well; however, you don't have to be doing anything other than going too fast to get it.
In your case, he 'cut you a break' by not citing you as reckless - which is horse manure. He probably cut himself a break so that you wouln't have to come to court (which you have to do if it's reckless). If you went, and told the judge that it was right at a speed limit change, and you were unfamiliar with the area, the ticket would most likely be reduced to regular speeding... and the judge would be annoyed with the officer for employing a 'dirty' tactic to nab you.
You could try and fight it, but it's pretty black and white. A lawyer could talk to the officer before court and see if he would be willing to lower, and/or drop the charge as a nice guy (hey, happened to me once
), but if that doesn't happen, it's unlikely that the judge will grant you any leeway. In my experience, judges kind of roll their eyes when defendents try to plead in speeding instances of clear guilty (read: 40 in a 20, vice 38 in a 35). Sorry about your luck.. I got nabbed for inspection on my bike the other week. Oh well, 'eh?