In late to early 2000/2001 I was driving through North Haledon NJ and was driving my Jeep Wrangler at the time. It was wet from snow/rain that night and was approaching an intersection while the light was GREEN. As I passed through the intersection it had turned yellow and I noticed a cop car about 6 cars back on the road to the right waiting for the light to obviously turn green. I was going 35mph, which is the speed limit for the area and it was roughly 12:30/1AM.
After about 2-3 miles of driving that same cop pulled me over. When he walk's up to the window I ask him if I was speeding or did something wrong, he gives me the cold shoulder and asks for my license, reg and insurance. I ask him again as I am handing him the necessary documents and he states I ran a RED light and could have caused an accident. At that point I told him it was green, by the time I was 3/4 through it turned yellow, there was no way, no how I could stop before going through that intersection and if I did attempt to stop I might have slide due to the road conditions.
He didn't care, and sure enough I got a summons, his words were "you can try to fight it, but either way you have to show up to court". So after 3 delays and eventually getting to a court room. He stated he was parked at a gas station, the ticket itself stated it was "fair/good visibilit weather". Stated I was driving recklessly and ran a red light. He initially had pulled me over thinking I was "intoxicated".
Before hand I'd actually went and pulled the weather for that evening and printed it out. I testified that the weather was not fair as the ticket had stated, and that I was not intoxicated he had followed me for several miles and then pulled me over for going through a green/yellow intersection light. He stated it was red, was not providing me the details of the pull over etc.
The judge gave the verdict that the officer is TRAINED and is capable of observing details that people in general are otherwise unable to, they went with the officers report even though I had a weather report etc. I then went up to the judge and told him i'd pay extra for an alleviation of points/forgiveness which he accepted. $78 dollars later I was forgiven, no points, no insurance premium.
It's amazing how they get away with things, I have family in the police department and I know there are many good cops, but there are some that just give them a bad name. I was and still am quite [censored] about it.
