Got a ticket for rolling through stop sign

Ok, so long story short, I got a new car (some of you know - Genesis Coupe), and it's my first stick. Basically, I'm still not too great at full stops at stop signs since it's so annoying to have to start from 1st gear every time. So I rolled through a stop sign, late at night, was super polite to the officer who had the trap set up. I did everything right, pulled over right away, turned off the engine, turned on all the interior lights, got my documents ready, opened the window, and put my hands on the steering wheel and waited for him to get out and come up to the window. I admitted to the offense, BUT, he still wrote me the ticket. I could tell he felt bad because he could see I was nervous and told me to "just relax." He said he's sorry but he has to enforce it, I told him it's fine, he's just doing his job, and it won't happen again. Done.

So now my question is, if I plead not guilty, and hope that he doesn't show up to court, and then he does, what do I do? If he shows up, can I just plead guilty and be on my way? Are there any repercussions? It's my first ticket so I don't know how it works. Is there any chance he will remember me and maybe say 'I'll let this one go', and not show up?

If anyone here is a cop, please say so if you're giving your input because I'd like to hear from you. I'm really a safe driver... 23 years old and no traffic tickets before this one, I'd say that's pretty good. And this won't happen again for sure...

 

I have been in your shoes several times. Sometimes the cops show, sometimes not. You have to assume they will show up. So as not to look like a fool, or one that is wasting the judges and cops time, I wouldn't fight the ticket and plead not guilty unless you have a "plausible" case.

If the cop shows up and you have nothing to present as a defense you probably will just make the judge mad. Since you admitted you were at fault to the cop, the cop will likely repeat your confession to the judge. So you sorta have lost your case already by admitting to the cop you were wrong. The judge is going believe the cop, so denying you admitted guilt to the cop is not going to help your case with the judge.

If I were you I would just pay the fine and go to traffic school and have the ticket erased from your record. Next time you get pulled over, don't admit or say anything to the cop. That way if you decide to plead not guilty and fight the ticket, you can plead your case without having the cop testify you admitted you were at fault.

 

being nice and following the step by step instructions they taught you in driving school is not gonna get you out of a ticket.
you made a mistake and got caught, be a man and accept the consequences. you are not gonna learn if you want to take the easy way out and try to wiggle yourself out of this hole. the only way to learn is to accept the fact that you didnt come to a full stop and pay for that ticket

 

2 Options:

1. Plead guilty and ask the judge for traffic school. 99% chance that this will work. You'll end up paying for the ticket and traffic school, so maybe $100, and end up with this being wiped from your record, as if it never happened.

or 2. Hire a cheap traffic lawyer and have him/her plead down to a non-moving violation, such as illegal parking or not wearing your seatbelt. This means no points on your license, but you pay the fine for the non-moving violation.

2 is more expensive, but 1 results in the most horrifically boring 8 hours of your life. Your choice.

 

OK! To everyone who wants to help me out by replying:

This is an example of a good answer. Thank you for the advice, I'm probably going to go with #1 since theres a chance it will also reduce my insurance by up to 10%.

This is an example of a terrible answer. Notice how the poster takes it upon himself to wag his finger and condescendingly judge, implying that I'm not 'being a man', that I'm 'taking the easy way out', and that I need to 'learn', while providing virtually no answer to my actual question. If you're going to make a post like this, save yourself 5 seconds and don't waste everyone's time. I didn't ask the question of "I've learned my lesson, what are the alternatives to straight out paying this?" just so that you could feed your insecurities by judging me.

 

Sorry to hear man, They enforce that thing here in Florida as well. A ROLL stop, is not considered a actual stop they want you to stop FULLY(eeven if one is there sigh...) Good luck man you'll get through it.

 

I see like every person on the road do this and also no blinker, they do need to enforce it because its that whole "give somebody an inch and they take a mile" thing.

You got unlucky and had it enforced on you, but law enforcement has to start somewhere.

As for as fighting the ticket, they just throw the case out if the officer is not there, I had fought a speeding ticket I got, they called me up and called the officer. When the officer was not there they said they had no choice but to toss out the ticket. However I was only in court because it really was a false ticket, had I gotten a ticket I deserved I would not waist my time/money trying to fight it. Thats what is wrong with the legal system when guilty people can get away with something just because they have the time/money to fight it or have a lawyer or something.

If you have a moving violation you just have to take a class to remove the points from your record, the class is easy but cost like $100 or so and you can only take it I think 3 times your whole life. I think they even let you take the class online now but it cost more. They just want your $$$ so they charge more for the class online that you really dont even have to take.

BTW I drive a stick too so I know what you mean but I still always stop, a stop is not bad the worst is the bumper to bumper rush hour traffic where you move like 5 inches at a time and then have to stop again. If you sit for a few seconds to let the car infront of you get some distance so you dont have to start/stop every few inches, then somebody will cut you off. (without there blinker of course)

 

Ok after reading all the good advice and talking to my dad, I'm just going to pay it and be done with it. The reason is that I am already on insurance discount for both scholarship and defensive driving from 2 years ago (taken just to reduce insurance, nothing else). Also, the points I get on my license will disappear after 18 months. My insurance will not go up according to my dad, who says they only care about speeding and that I "could roll through stop signs all day and they wouldn't care." $130 down the drain.

I wish you guys could see this stop though.... It's an all-way stop 50 feet from my house, 12:10AM, all streets easily visible for a hundred yards, not a single car in sight besides me and the cop sitting with his lights off in the grass...

 

You could say the same thing about why I've got a stack of seat belt tickets on my desk. But aside from the fact that I am right, that I have the constitutional right to make my own decisions that impact only my life, I still hear it from people just like you that spout off "The law is the law", regardless of what that law is. Just wait until it is the law that you can't eat doughnuts or bacon because they are bad for your health.... It'll come sooner than you think with attitudes like that.

Why exactly is a rolling stop such a dangerous thing? At night you have the increased benefit of headlights to alert you of oncoming traffic, so in this case there would be no accident. You make it sound like he beat some old lady over the head with a steel pipe....

Personally, after my quality time driving around in Detroit, I treat all stop signs as "yield" signs. In the "right" neighbourhoods, I'd even run through reds if traffic was clear. After all, geting carjacked sucks, and the Detroit Police have better things to do than give somebody a ticket for a rolling stop, unless they wanted to search the car anyways.

 

Its exactly what I just said above, "give an inch and they take a mile" if you get away with it most of the time in minor situations its only a matter of time before you do it in the wrong situation.

Sure its not dangerous to do a rolling stop on some back yard driveway where the closest thing to another car on the road is your great great grandfathers broken dump truck from 30 years back broken down at the farm, but the people that just pull out infront of you when your doing the full speed limit down a road and they are only car lengths infront of you forcing you to hit your brakes so you dont hit them in the rear is a problem.

If that person would have come to a full stop they could have taken the few seconds to analyze the traffic and see that somebody is coming there way and they do not have enough time to get infront of you and up to speed, also that few seconds to stop would have been all the time I need to pass, then they can enter the road and speed up at there leisure.

The infamous rolling stop is not enough time to properly see what is going on around you at an intersection, and so they just pull out and make it your problem not to cause an accident when you had the right of way and were already up to speed.

Impatience is not a reason to drive dangerous and a few seconds to stop completely is not going to hurt your drive time.

In the example sure you were in a dark area right, so you could see headlights and stuff. What if some kid was on his bike and going past with no light for you to see? Your rolling stop could have been what killed him. The time taken to stop would have been enough for him to see you and stop or go around behind you, or for you to see him.

You may say, well that would be his fault he should have had a light, thats the law. Wouldn't be it ironic if that kid on the bike sounded like you and said "I have every constitutional right to make my own decisions that impact only my life" blah blah blah.

Well thats all good till he is dead and traumatizes his family and the person that killed him because he didnt want to follow a simple safety law.

Besides you drive so often every day what you do is not a thought process but becomes a habit or muscle memory, you start doing the rolling stop all the time because you think its safe and thats when you will be one of the people pulling out in front of me without knowing it. had you always done the right thing and stopped like your supposed to that wouldn't happen.

Most accidents happen because sombody thinks its safe to do something, they just turned onto a road with no cars on it into the right most lane, so then 5 seconds later they do a lane change without checking there blind spot because there was nobody on the road 5 seconds ago and they hit a car. Where did that car come from??? Probably out of the parking lot you just passed or did a U-Turn, they could have been speeding too and breaking the law, one bad driver can cause an accident but put two of them together and the chances multiply.

Rolling through a stop sign, or not using a blinker, any of these simple things can lead to major accidents and repercussions so dont take it so lightly. Your saying you do outright things like run red lights? Well then you deserve what ever ticket you get, and the great irony that may come about when say somebody else runs a red light at the same time as you and it causes an accident, just hope its not a police officer.