Same one. Still waiting on a court date
Reminds me of when I was attending school in Philadelphia many years ago.
My brother had a car he was trying to sell. Had a potential buyer from New Jersey who was interested but wanted to see the car. We worked out a plan whereby I took the car down to Philly, and the next weekend I headed across the Walt Whitman Bridge and across New Jersey to show the car, then back to home to return the car to my brother.
It was raining heavily in NJ. The route was a 2-lane state highway. I was behind a truck that was going well under the speed limit, and throwing up huge rooster tails of water. Finally got a clear straight stretch where I could pass, and did so. I noticed a car parked on the opposite shoulder as I passed, but I didn't pay any attention.
MANY miles farther down the road, I spotted an emergency vehicle of some kind coming up behind me, so I pulled over to let it go by. I was mildly astonished when it pulled up behind me. It was a county mountie, and he claimed I must have been "flying" because it took him so long to catch up to me. In fact, I was driving the speed limit and it took him so long because he had to turn around, and then pass numerous vars and trucks in a heavy rain with near zero visibility. But ... don't argue it on the side of the road.
He gave me a ticket, with a court date and a fine, and an address where I could just send in the payment. I wasn't about the get railroaded by a NJ cop, so I resolved to go to court. There was a note on the bottom of the ticket advising that, if you elected to contest the ticket, call [this number]. So I called.
A woman answered. I told her I had a ticket, that I planned to appear in court, and that I was calling because the note on the ticket said to call [this number]. There was a long silence, followed by, "Why are you calling?" I repeated that I was calling because a note on the ticket instructed me to call if I planned to appear and plead not guilty.
She: "You're going to plead not guilty?"
Me: "Yes. I'm not guilty, so I'm going to plead not guilty."
She: "You're going to plead ... NOT guilty?"
Me: "Yes. That's why I called."
She finally got it, and then stammered out, "Oh. Well then, you can't come on the day on your ticket. That's only for non-contested cases. If you're really going to plead NOT guilty [she made it sound like I was the only person who had ever pled not guilty in the entire history of NJ traffic citations] you have to go to a different courthouse on a different day." So I got the information and wrote it on my calendar.
On the appointed day, I schlepped across New Jersey to the courthouse and sat through several hours of people paying fines for speeding tickets. The judge finally called my case. I stood up and announced that I was present.
The judge then asked if the complaining officer was present in court. The prosecutor looked around, cleared his throat several times, ran his finger around the inside of his shirt collar, and finally responded, 'No, your Honor, he is not in court today."
"Case dismissed," said the judge.
The whole mess was clearly a scam. The cop chased me because I had out-of-state tags and I'm certain he was sure I wouldn't bother to come back to contest the ticket.
Screw him.