Need legal advice

Last year I was stopped for going 31mph in a 25mph zone. The cop that stopped me was a university police officer and asked if I had been drinking. Like a fool I said I had a few beers and was charged with a DUI for .09 legal limit being .08

This has cost me around $2500s so far before being convicted.

in court the cop
1. said his lights were off during the sobriety test and didn't even know where his cop car was located
2. claimed I missed so many steps during heel to toe steps that he lost count but couldn't remember how many steps he asked me to take (8 steps)
3. said he doesn't pull everyone over for 6mph over just picks who he wants to pull
4. made me count to 38 with one leg up and claimed i was bouncing around like a drunken fool and didn't follow his instructions. lawyer asked how long he had been doing this test(ten years) and why he still needs to read it to people and not from memory and how he expects me do it properly the first time being told.
5. said i dropped my licence in my lap and forgot it was in my lap and that i seemed nervous (lie)
6. didn't know when he calibrated his speedometer said a month ago and that another unknown person did it


and few other contradictions that made him seem like a total fool. DA even laughed at this cop....

I was given a speeding ticket as well for 6mph over. I shouldn't have been drinking and hadn't eaten dinner that night so i could go see old friends in town and in all I had 3 beers. 1 beer of those beers before going out and a few hours before.

The speeding ticket was dropped(which is his only probable cause for pulling me over) and I was charged with a level 5 DUI. The judge I got just recently lost her son to a bike accident a few months prior so i got the worst judge possible.

My question is should I appeal my case. If i appeal I go to superior court and have a possible jury trial and more court costs on top of my fine which is

community service 24hrs
drug and alcohol classes 16 hours
lose my license for a year (provisional licence for work)
fine = 660$s
total cost without appeal = $1040s

We all make mistakes but this nearly $4000 mistake is breaking me and that's not including car insurance being raised. If i appeal this could drag out another year making this a two year stressful dilemma

any good advice? should I appeal? the cop is complete moron

a reply to: JDmOKI

the cop is complete moron

Who was drinking and driving and over the legal limit??
I really doubt the internet is the best place for legal advice though.

You were in the wrong....time to pay the piper and suck it up.
Accept responsibility.

I know its not what you want to hear but I would just take it up the butt and get it over with, pay the fines, do the classes. Learn your lesson and don't drink even a beer if you are going to be driving. Its just a typical judicial shakedown, and they do them to everybody and barley anyone ever wins.

a reply to: JDmOKI

If it was me? I would find something to make money on that involves no travel for a little while, as things get worked out in court, and go for an appeal. The cop is a moron, the judge is prejudiced by recent trauma. You loose either way on the money front, but I would be tempted to gouge a hole in the bastards... Oh, and also pick which you are going to do in an evening. Either drink even a little, and go no where near your car, or drive.

I have not even qualified as a driver yet, but I know this much... I will be only doing one of those two things, in any twenty four hour period.

a reply to: JDmOKI

the cop is the moron but youre the one that was speeding and admitted to drinking?
ok....

that said...if it were me i would not appeal it. i also wouldnt trust my advice. just telling you what i personally would do.
i would want it to be over as fast and as cheap as possible

Take your lumps and don't do it again. You know you should not have been drinking and driving.

The COP is a moron?...smh.. I guess we're all entitled to an opinion, however, your logic is severely flawed. It was YOU who decided to get in to a vehicle after drinking alcohol. Unless you're a twelve year old girl, I have a hard time believing that a couple beers with dinner would bring your BAL to .09. Having lost a few friends to idiot drunk drivers who decide to take other peoples lives in to their own hands by risking it, I personally hope he throws the book at you. That being said, good luck man. I hate the court system.

Did they drop the speeding ticket under the assumption that they'd get you for the DUI?

Look at it this way, you're either going to pay the courts of the lawyers. Even if you win in appeals, you're still going to be out a fair chunk of change. And that's a big if... It doesn't matter that the cop was a dingus, or that the offence was so minor... juries convict to the letter of the law, and have a pretty high threshold for "extenuating circumstance".

The classes and community service can't be that bad, especially if they substitute spending more time and money with the courts.

a reply to: Jefferton

Thats fine i'm a scum bag

a reply to: JDmOKI

Don't appeal. Waste of time and money, just do what the court orders and be done with it.

You should have gotten a good attorney before you even went to court. And if there was no video of the sobriety test, and based upon what the cop said, a good attorney would have gotten it reduced to dui less safe or simply thrown out.

At this point, an appeal is more headache than not.

Take the stupid classes, get a work permit, and go what you gotta do. They only want your $ anyway.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Lesson very much learned on my front. I really didn't feel drunk nor am i claiming complete innocence but he is known life wrecker on our local college campus. I think he has had like 5 prior cases dropped because of lack of probable cause and being a complete moron. This stays on my record for 10+ years but im not sure i'm gonna appeal.

Sorry to say but like the others posted, just suck it up and pay and pay, pay, pay for it for a year.

Next time be responsible and use this. At least then you will know where you are at and it's cheap too. A lot cheaper than what you are going through now huh?

THINK! AND
DRINK RESPONSIBLY!

a reply to: Liquesence

I asked the cop is he had a camera since it was his word over mine and he said no they don't keep cameras on their cars. Thats what sucks they completely break my wallet then they make it so i have no way to work and want me to work for free

a reply to: EequalsMC2

I said beers without dinner

originally posted by: JDmOKI
a reply to: Liquesence

I asked the cop is he had a camera since it was his word over mine and he said no they don't keep cameras on their cars. Thats what sucks they completely break my wallet then they make it so i have no way to work and want me to work for free

That's the point, breaking people financially.

As far as the camera (and I mean dashcam video, not bodycam), that's why you should have gotten a good attorney to start, if you could have afforded it. If not, then the system is doing what the system is infamous for: sticking it to people who don't have the money to properly defend themselves and further taking the money they don't have. I've been there, I know.

You can get a work permit, so do it.

a reply to: JDmOKI

Your fault. Deal. Appealing could get you even deeper in consequences, fines...they could decide it wasn't enough and you could get even worse.

Youre wrong. Accept responsibility....prisons are filled with "It wasn't me! I didn't DO it!"

You did. Stop whining

a reply to: JDmOKI

Cops didn't break your wallet....you did by driving drunk.
You were in the wrong...accept it.
If you can't work because you don't have a license or a car....ask yourself,who is at fault??
They did their job and you got caught....simple concept.