last night around 7pm. I was driving my car on my way back home from MacDonald.

I was on 5th Ave, 52nd Street in Brookly. The 2 female cops driving the big Cop Van making a U turn in front of me, (It took them like 5 minutes to make the UTurn. geez, anyways) When they passed by me on the coming lane, they stopped and made another U turn and stopped befind me. So I was like what the hell is going on? I thought they are trying to give those alcoholic people at the corner some hard time. Damn I was wrong! They pulled me off and gave me a ticket, guess what that is for. they said I am putting my music too loud! They asked me if my car has stock radio, I told them I have a sub in the trunk.

Here is the ticket description:
In Violation of SEC 240 Sub 20.
OP MOTOR VEH w/Car Radio at excessive volume.

there are another Mercedes and a Explorer passed by with their radio 10 times louder than me(no, my system is pretty loud, they won't be 10 times louder than me) but Can I use that as a point to fight my ticket?

What should I use to fight to ticket. Should I ask them for proof that I am using excessive volumn?
I mean I was calm and having good time and going home for dinner. God damn it!
If they are doing their job, in that area, they would be busy just giving people ticket for excessiv volumn! So many cars out there do that same shiit!
Why they just give me ticket? I am gonna use racism as my point too!

Guys, please help me out. I was not looking for trouble but got a ticket for stupid reason, that is what I think!
Oh, please tell them to learn how to drive and make a u turn.

 

You should have a good case to get out of it.

Do some research and find out exactly what that law says. Usually the volume must me measured at a certain dB to get the ticket...I doubt they did that to you. It sounds like a total BS ticket. Good luck.

 

mzmtg is right, get the local law info. I am sure that there must be some db level. From there get the documentation (I think it's called discovery) on the db meter in the truck and the relevant training experience of the officers.

If you have witnesses that can attest to the fact that other cars seemed louder you can always try the 'they could not have singled me out, it could have been any one of us' logic.

Have you thought that they were just to shy to ask you for a date and that they may want to hook up with you at the courthouse?

 

mzmtg may have a good point, usually the law points to a specific decibel level. The patrol/task force police officers don't carry these.

 

Ball bustin' female cops Sorry to hear that dude. Guess it was just one of them days. Questions I'd ask myself if I were in your shoes is:

How many points do you have on your license, if any?
Any points would result from this if you plead guilty?
How much is the fine?
If the fine is minimal, and a none moving violation, is it worth taking it to court?

Point is, if there's a statute for this, even if it's hardly enforced, is still a law. Consider yourself at a wrong place + wrong time... we've all been there in one form or another.

 

Section 240.20 Disorderly conduct

A person is guilty of disorderly conduct when, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof:

1. He engages in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior; or

2. He makes unreasonable noise; or

3. In a public place, he uses abusive or obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture; or

4. Without lawful authority, he disturbs any lawful assembly or meeting of persons; or

5. He obstructs vehicular or pedestrian traffic; or

6. He congregates with other persons in a public place and refuses to comply with a lawful order of the police to disperse; or

7. He creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose.

Disorderly conduct is a violation.

There is no description written on this section about excessive volumn!

 

do you think i like to go to court? no I don't.

but in the ticket, there is no fine! they summonned me to appear on the court! and no point info as well. ( i don't think there will be points deduction tho)

I figured that I should do some homework and maybe a chance to bring down the fine at the court or whatever.

I wil be on the court anyways.

 

Not only werent you doing anything on that list...you didnt do any ofthem with the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm.

I believe you can fight and win.

 

I took a speeding ticket on i95 (4 pts, fine + NJ State Surcharge= $300 ticket and license suspension) to court, in short, I won. No points/fine, I just had to pay for the surcharge
Go for it Chris- just be prepared

 

maxgurl, how you won? what did you prepare?

 

I would definitely fight it. I think that they would have to have evidence to prove that your music was too loud. I think that NY state law says that 96 db is too loud for your car (exhaust) to be. I'm sure that they didn't have something to measure the volume of your music. If they did your basically screwed. BTW did they give you a traffic ticket or some other sort of ticket. When you are given a moving violations ticket they do not specify how much to pay or what the point violation is. There is a category that is labelled "other" which says $40 fine and $30 surcharge.

 

Get a good criminal defense attorney and you can kiss that ticket goodbye I bet.

 

I would rather pay the ticket then. I think that the cost of a good attorney would far outweigh the price of the ticket.

 

In my case, factoring in the fine, points, license suspension and insurance premium increase, it was well worth fighting the speeding ticket. To my luck the trooper was reassigned to another post and did not appear in court. The judge just made me pay for state surcharge and dropped the case.
Paid $100 for lawyer (initial consultation fee+ court appearance) and he took care of the rest.

This is also why I said in your case, not knowing what stipulations are involved, I wouldn't know if
a. it's worth hiring a lawyer
b. it's worth contesting

Make sure you have a justifyable cause/argument in the court. ie- Speeders get measured with radar guns- recorded etc. What did the cops use to determine the volume of your car audio? At that point, I highly doubt they can pull out a dB readout sheet of the noise level at which your car was at. Their argument then would be subjective and bias at best.

That's what I meant by being prepared ...

 

Me thinks this law stinketh. Unless you got busted late at night, I'm thinking this is one of those subjective laws that is left up to the discretion of the officers. Sound is measured with an SPL meter but the distance to the source is important. I wouldn't know how any law could quantitate a db level at a certain distance as being a cut off. I would definitely find out the wording of the law and formulate a plan from there. Most likely it is subjective, in which case you can argue that fact to the judge. I wouldn't pull out the race card if I were you!!! Unless you have evidence (ie. racial slurs, etc.), you would be inferring that police officers cannot give tickets out to people of other races. You can point to other subjective factors. Like the other cars also playing loudly (and lack of uniformity or subjectivity with application of this law). Like the type of music you used (that they might not like). Loudness relative to background (was it a busy street?) or on the flip side, if it was a quite area, your music might appear to be louder than it would be in a noisy busy intersection. Directionality of the sound (officers passing by your open window, but overall sound level not excessive from other angles--pertains mainly to higher frequencies). SEx--Females and the young have been shown to have better hearing than males. Officers--has their hearing been checked? Some people are more sensitive to certain frequencies of sound, even with impaired hearing.

Once was paid a visit to my apt in college by a police officer. I was in violation of noise regulations in the town there and it did NOT involve any measured SPL. All that was required was a complaint of excessive noise from a neighbor with corroboration by the officer. Luckily I am quite polished at sucking up and apologized my way out of a ticket. Different scenario though....

 

Chris,

First advice is to go to court and talk to the clerk a
couple days before you actually go to court for your ticket.
Ask for any certification that the officers are qualify to
use to detect sound using a sound measuring device. Get any
relevant documents from the court on the officers.

Now that you have the paperwork. Go to court and plead your
case. Dress real nice and stated to the judge that there
was other cars and the officers made a mistake. If you
couldn't get the paperwork. Tell the judge the court didn't
produce the paperwork you requested. Make sure you get a
receipt of some sort to prove this. This will dismiss your
case as the officers can't prove their certifications. If
the officers don't show up this will also dismiss your case.

If the judge ask you if your music volume was up never admit
to it. NEVER admit guilt of any kind. You'll lose..

Do not use the law against the judge. He'll slap you with
it.

If you feel you can't come up with adequate defense please
get a lawyer. They can make your life easier.. Good luck..

mike

 

Some tickets, yes. Other tickets, no. If you have several tickets and consider insurance, etc. often a good lawyer is very much worthwhile

 

Fight for it if you think you are wrongly accused. Cops are suppose to serve and protect and not to give you a ticket because they didn't meet the quota.

 

Sorry,
I was only referring to this specific case.

 

you might have better luck going to the precinct or division that the officers who gave you the ticket belong to.

 

I love the way you think!!

 

Thank you everyone for your advices.

The reason I want to fight is because I don't like the fact that I wasn't doing anything wrong. Even I have my music on, they could've warned me instead of giving me ticket.

I was going home for dinner for God's sake!!

If there are anyone knows of 5th ave in Brooklyn, they should've known there are hundreds of cars rolling with the music loud, I mean real 'loud'.

but thank you again.
have a good day

 

Very nice post. Informative. Only one thing though. In Wa. State, the back of the ticket specifices you must:
1) To request docouments, you must request them xxx time before the trial date.
2) To suponea the officer, you must again have a formal request xxx days before the trail date.

I had one ticket when I didn't get the documents in the mail by the day of the trial(came the next day) and the officer was tied up in another court case that day. So I had it in the bag that day.

 

I'm pretty sure you don't have to subpoena (sp?) the officer in NY. It's there choice if they want to show up or not. What happened to me was when I pleaded not guilty for my speeding ticket they scheduled me on a date that the officer had other cases to go to. I doubt that will be the case for you Chris.

 

 

daymn.. they took 3 points off me for avoiding a high way sign..
my first ticket and im only 16, yes im cute ^^
oh, im asian also.. KOREAN woohoo
but that police officer was nice enough not to give me a ticket for overspeeding 10 miles..
dont all cops do that shiet though?
****es me off when i see cops speeding...