Ok, here's the story.
I work for an HVAC company and have a company van. On a Friday afternoon in late July, I got a call from a co-worker asking me to cover for him at a job in downtown Baltimore. I was working off of the 28th St. exit at the JHU campus (for those of you familiar with the area), so I wasn't *too* far out.
He told me all I had to do was sit around from 4-8pm and wait for the general contractors to finish a changeover on an airhandler, and when they were done I needed to change 2 setpoints in the program. Essentially I was going to sit around for 4 hours and do 5 minutes worth of work and get 4 hours of OT for it. The only reason he wasn't doing it himself was because it was a Friday night, but I had nothing better to do so I took him up on it.
I had never been to this job before. Again, for those familiar with the area, this job was near the JHU medical campus downtown. I'm from a small town in West Virginia and don't know my way around downtown very well. I got directions from my coworker, and at 4:00 I left the job I was at and headed downtown. Now, the JHU medical campus isnt exactly in the best neighborhood. In fact, it's in a pretty bad neighborhood. As in, I wasn't very comfortable even driving through it, so I was doing everything I could to not get lost.
I'm following the directions looking for street signs. The next part of the directions says "Turn left on Washington St" (I think that's the name of the street, but its pretty irrelevant). I'm watching street signs, and I come up on an intersection. I quickly scan for a street sign and see that this is in fact Washington Street. I put my left blinker on and make the turn. As soon as I do, I see a cop up ahead standing in the street motioning for me to pull over, so I comply. He comes over and tells me that I'm being stopped because there is no left turn on Washington St between 4-6pm (it's currently 4:05). I give him my license/registration and he comes back with an $80 ticket for an illegal left turn and tells me that he knows it's bull**** but an elderly lady that lives on that street complained so they had to do something.
Now, this ticket also includes points on my license and all that other fun stuff since it was technically a moving violation. The cop told me that if I took it to court and explained the circumstances I'd still have to pay the fine but they'd probably drop the points. So, I've decided to take it to court, and my court date is October 13th. I've never done this before and I have no idea what to expect. Technically I'm guilty, but I'm hoping that since the cop admitted it was bull**** that maybe he won't show, or at worst I'll just have to pay the fine. I don't recall seeing a sign saying "No left turn 4-6pm", so I'd like to see if they actually have a picture of it or something to prove that it was actually there - but anyway - what should I expect?? Any tips/suggestions?
I work for an HVAC company and have a company van. On a Friday afternoon in late July, I got a call from a co-worker asking me to cover for him at a job in downtown Baltimore. I was working off of the 28th St. exit at the JHU campus (for those of you familiar with the area), so I wasn't *too* far out.
He told me all I had to do was sit around from 4-8pm and wait for the general contractors to finish a changeover on an airhandler, and when they were done I needed to change 2 setpoints in the program. Essentially I was going to sit around for 4 hours and do 5 minutes worth of work and get 4 hours of OT for it. The only reason he wasn't doing it himself was because it was a Friday night, but I had nothing better to do so I took him up on it.
I had never been to this job before. Again, for those familiar with the area, this job was near the JHU medical campus downtown. I'm from a small town in West Virginia and don't know my way around downtown very well. I got directions from my coworker, and at 4:00 I left the job I was at and headed downtown. Now, the JHU medical campus isnt exactly in the best neighborhood. In fact, it's in a pretty bad neighborhood. As in, I wasn't very comfortable even driving through it, so I was doing everything I could to not get lost.
I'm following the directions looking for street signs. The next part of the directions says "Turn left on Washington St" (I think that's the name of the street, but its pretty irrelevant). I'm watching street signs, and I come up on an intersection. I quickly scan for a street sign and see that this is in fact Washington Street. I put my left blinker on and make the turn. As soon as I do, I see a cop up ahead standing in the street motioning for me to pull over, so I comply. He comes over and tells me that I'm being stopped because there is no left turn on Washington St between 4-6pm (it's currently 4:05). I give him my license/registration and he comes back with an $80 ticket for an illegal left turn and tells me that he knows it's bull**** but an elderly lady that lives on that street complained so they had to do something.
Now, this ticket also includes points on my license and all that other fun stuff since it was technically a moving violation. The cop told me that if I took it to court and explained the circumstances I'd still have to pay the fine but they'd probably drop the points. So, I've decided to take it to court, and my court date is October 13th. I've never done this before and I have no idea what to expect. Technically I'm guilty, but I'm hoping that since the cop admitted it was bull**** that maybe he won't show, or at worst I'll just have to pay the fine. I don't recall seeing a sign saying "No left turn 4-6pm", so I'd like to see if they actually have a picture of it or something to prove that it was actually there - but anyway - what should I expect?? Any tips/suggestions?