<font color=skyblue>My poor wife got a ticket for accidently running a red light. She was sitting at the light, and the left turn light came on for the people next to her. When she saw green, she also went, though her light was still red! Noticing what she did, she of course had to keep going when she got half way under, for turning back was more dangerous.

Now, this is where it gets questionable.

An off-duty cop saw her and pulled her. He called it in to an on-duty cop. While waiting for the on-duty cop to get there, my wife explained what happened to the off-duty cop. He took her license and all just as though he was on-duty. When the new cop arrived, he stayed near his own car while the off-duty cop took the info to him and then came back with the ticket. Thus, my wife never got to talk to the "Man on duty".

Is this worthy of fighting? The off-duty cop told her that to go to trial would be to save her insurance from going up, and quoted her for the 25th of September.

I have quit my job to return to school, and Karen is still looking for a job. We do not have $110 to spend on the cost of court. Therefore, she was more than a litle upset when she came home.

Can anybody help?</font>

Sounds like bullshit to me Larry. And I must say Mary Elizabeth sure is getting big [img]smile.gif[/img] I remember when she was just a little bitty thing [img]smile.gif[/img] Great pic Larry

Larry; whether or not that cop was on duty, I think that your wife just made an error by driving through the red light. It's not worth it fighting these type of things.

If it's a cop you have a slim chance of winning, mate. Usually in the government bodies they tend to cover each others backs. I'd try forget about it and move on if I were you. She still has her license right?

In the netherlands it doesn't matter whether a cop is on or off duty. An off duty cop can arrest, fine or do whatever an on duty cop can do.

So, I think it won't do any good to takes this to court. :(

But it may be totally different in the States of course. ;)

Trust me, there is no point in fighting this. Get a loan from friends to pay the fine and then go out to diner or see a movie, get your mind of things....

Hmmm... I'm not sure about how you feel where waiting for court is concerned. In opinion the fact that the cop issuing the ticket was off-duty essentially makes the ticket void. I'm not a legal expert in North Carolina though, so I can't be certain. 90% you can take it to court and the cop will never show and the case is thrown out along with the ticket. It's your call though. I'd say get some legal advice from a lawyer, but then it would end up being cheaper to pay the fine.

just curious, do you know personally anybody who is an influential government people? They can be a big help to you.

<font color=skyblue>The law is this. If the officer is not in uniform, then he cannot issue a ticket. The person that did issue the ticket never approached my wife, never spoke to her, and only issued the ticket through the plain-clothes cop. That should make it void.</font>

Why in the world did your wife pull over for an off duty cop? Was he in a squad car or something?