Lowville, NY asked in Traffic Tickets for New York

Q: Can a police officer change a view obstruction(coat hanging on coat hook) ticket to a speeding ticket before my trial?

Went to pretrial meet with the DA two months after receiving the original ticket and was told I was probably speeding and the officer was giving me a break instead of issuing the speeding ticket and if I went to trial the officer could change the ticket to speeding ticket.

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2 Lawyer Answers
Barry E. Janay
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Answered
  • Livingston, NJ
  • Licensed in New York

A: Doesn't seem proper. It's one thing to plea bargain down to something, but if you're charged with one thing on the summons / notice the governmental authorities should be bound by that. Now if they issue a second summons post facto that would be something they likely could do and it would be more likely to work for them, but they would have some explaining to do as to why it wasn't issued contemporaneously with the original traffic stop.

Zev Goldstein
Zev Goldstein
Answered
  • Traffic Tickets Lawyer
  • New City, NY
  • Licensed in New York

A: Yes,

the officer is able to rewrite a ticket prior to trial if it is the original violation

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