Ithaca DWI Lawyer: Warns New York Students That Get High Don't Get Stopped in PA

College Memories

New York State and Pennsylvania are places of great similarity and contrast. I have practiced DWI defense in both, and the laws, rules, and procedures are night and day. For those that smoke pot in New York the DWAI drugs "driving while impaired by a drug" driving charge, and the required proof for that offense morphs into something far different and ultimately more dangerous just below us in Pennsylvania.

Ithaca DWI Lawyer: Can the Police Check Your Car Trunk for Drugs in New York?

Trunk Access from My Back Seat

In a recent court case of People v. Jones, 2016, Livingston County a person was stopped for speeding which led to search of his car and then of his trunk. Of course pot was found in the trunk of his car, and a suppression hearing was held to determine the constitutionality (legality) of the police search of the trunk.

Was the trooper within the law?

Is it ok for the police to check your car's trunk?

Does this violate your 4th amendment rights?

Can they do this with every car stop?

Ithaca Lawyer How to Defeat a Speeding Ticket

Ithaca, NY is in fall season. The Finger lakes region of New York State is beautiful this time of the year. To me the flowers of summer are amazing but the reds, yellows, and oranges that explode on to the pastures is absolutely incredible. Too bad people just can not slow down, and smell the coffee. Instead maybe they are drinking a bit too much of it.

All kidding aside the speed limits around these parts go from 30MPH back up to 40MPH and then 55MPH (the state speed limit is 55 except for the Interstates). Sometimes these changes can be abrupt as in OMG it is back down to 30MPH again. So you need to drive up and down, and with the rolling of the hills it can get tiresome.

I used to say (when I was younger), "I feel a need for some speed."

Speeding tickets can be very costly. There are fines, state surcharges, points on your driving record, car insurance ramifications, driver's license suspensions, driver education classes, DMV yearly surcharges, etc. a ticket for 25 miles per hour over the limit is a 6 pointer!

11 points or 3 speeding tickets in 18 months and you have a suspension of your New York license. If you get only 2 tickets in a work zone you also get suspended. For those from out of state, you will have your NYS "privilege" to drive suspended. You could also face a DMV administrative hearing where they would revoke your license. A revocation means you must re-apply and re-test for a license. A suspension means a definite period of time (kinda like suspended animation) where once the time ends the license is still there (you just pay a fee).

If your license gets suspended you may be able to get a restricted driving license (not full driving privileges) for school, work, and medical care.

So how can you defeat a speeding ticket?

Speed radar units need to be calibrated.

Records of calibration need to be kept.

Tuning forks need to be used to test these units regularly.

Tuning fork calibrations and calibration logs need to be done on the date speeding was alleged, and during the month of the violation alleged.

Certificates of calibration must be kept for the tuning forks.

There are many potential areas of errors in the great majority of speed testing devices:

Cosine error, batching error, panning and scanning errors, shadowing errors, errors from interferences (billboards, overpasses, CB radios, cell phone towers, radio towers), errors inside the police car (heater, A/C unit, fans, radios, computers, police radios), errors from improper placement of the radar unit within the police car, errors due to heat build up in the unit, errors due to cold build up in the unit, errors due to power surges by turning on or turning off the radar unit at the last minute to avoid a car's radar detection unit, errors from automatic car locking systems, errors from a laptop, errors from a cell phone, errors from a pager, errors due to mirror switch aiming, etc.

The officer needs to be questioned (cross examined) about all of this, in detail, before he can lay a foundation that this unit was in proper working condition and NO errors were made or occurred.

The real question comes down to can the government, the state, the people of the great state of NY (the District Attorney) prove beyond a reasonable doubt and to the exclusion of every honest, common sense doubt that the radar unit was properly working on the date and time in question?

Can they prove beyond this burden (this is their burden not yours) that the officer appropriately administered and used this testing device so that it was accurate and reliable?

Because if they can not then they have not met their burden, and the Judge must acquit.