48km/h Over On 401
This ticket is going back to November 2, 2008 and is a bit long winded. I will try and break it down into parts.
1. It was 2-3AM and I was heading back home along the 401 on my motorcycle, it was EXTREMELY cold to say the least and I will never ever ride in temperatures like that again. Coming along so late the traffic was light so I had my high beams on to light up the road a bit better. I am in the middle lane of the Express Eastbound and as I come around the bend and up the little hill just after Allen Road the back of a police car lights up due to my high beams. The cop car is well up the road and when I saw a vehicle ahead I immediately shut down my high beams. I looked down at my speedo and it said 120km/h give or take. So I slowed it down to 110km/h and kept a steady pace. I finally pass him almost right at Avenue Road which is almost 2 exits after I initially saw him driving ahead. I slowly pass him and after going passed Yonge st he pulls behind me and puts on his lights. I pull over, somewhat thankful as my hands were frozen. He comes over and asks me if I knew how fast I was going and I answered 120km/h. He then starts telling me that I was doing 148km/h and 2km/h more and he would be taking my bike, I simply said ok and gave him my information. He comes back and gives me the ticket and basically thats the end of that.
2.
I submit for a court date and then fax in 2 requests for disclosure using the ticketcombat form and information. My first court date comes up at September, 2009 and I had received no communication or information about my disclosure. So I show up and tell the prosecutor that I have yet to receive my disclosure, she tells me to go inside. So the officer is there and i get called up and I state I have not received disclosure after 2 faxes. The prosecutor has both my requests in her file and basically asks for an adjournment to provide me disclosure. The date is January 20, 2010 for the next date and I am told disclosure should be ready in a few days. So about 1-2 weeks goes by and I get 2-3 calls saying it's ready, interesting they couldn't call me before but now all of a sudden its a priority and they call me multiple times to leave messages. So I go down to the court house and pickup the disclosure and am almost floored at how little I actually received.
The disclosure consisted of 7 lines of officers notes which are not legible, I had requested a typed copy along with the originals yet only received the original hand written notes. There was also a couple notes on the actual ticket itself. So I do my research and talk to some people who say that the disclosure I got is incomplete and that based on the situation I should be able to get off without a problem. I pull some past cases from reference and do alot of reading and get prepared for my court date. I submitted for an 11b but it was about 3 days before the trial date as I wasn't aware about the proper procedures for that.
3. Full of confidence I go to court and the prosecutor asks me if i'd like to take a deal of 20 over, 2 points and $90. I say no I am ready to go to trial and explain I haven't received proper disclosure and that I will be making a motion for a stay based on submitting for the 11b. She asks the officer to go over his notes with me which I am not ok with and don't accept as reasonable for me to prepare my case. While talking the officer doesn't even remember the stop, he is going on about how he came up behind me and what lane he was in and what lane I was in. Then he gets to his notes which states "M/C coming up on rear fast". After reading that he stumbles and corrects himself saying that I came up on his rear. So i'm thinking even better, he doesn't have an independent recollection of the events and I can probably pick him apart. About halfway through the court the prosecutor hands a note to the officer who motions for me to come outside with him. He tells me that the JP presiding today does not allow arguments of speeders and that I should think about what I am going to do before I get called up. So i'm thinking in my head, awesome they are trying to push me into a deal because they know they have nothing.
WRONG...I get up and I am asked how I plead and I state that I would like to make a motion for a stay of proceedings as my charter right to a trial within a reasonable time has been violated. Before I can even explain the timeline the JP cuts me off and tells me he is denying it. So I am a bit annoyed at this but I then mention that I have yet to receive full and complete disclosure and that the notes of the officer are illegible. The JP states that it only should take 5 minutes to go over the notes with the officer and you should be able to prepare a proper defence. Then the prosecutor starts spewing non-sense about how the disclosure went to the wrong office and that I didn't include the officers badge number and that was the reason I didn't get it on time. This doesn't explain the lack of information provided and I faxed the request to the correct office as per ticketcombat.
So I request an adjournment so I can receive proper disclosure and seek legal counsel to which the JP denies. He proceeds to tell me to think about what I am going to do and sit down. He states that all the prosecutor has to do is ask the officer if he caught me speeding, what speed and if the radar was tested and that I will be convicted. He mentioned that speeding is an absolute liability and that there is no defence to speeding (I think this is the correct term). For someone who is supposed to not have pre-conceived judgements this is a little scary.
So I think about it and am still ready to go to trial and the JP tells me the same thing that he is basically 100% going to convict me. So I go quite and the Prosecutor finally says that she would recommend an adjournment as she could tell I felt pressured to make a decision.
So here I am with another court date, March 9 2010, and trying to get some last minute planning in.
The disclosure has no mention of radar testing procedures, whether it passed or failed, no description or plate of my bike. It also says that he locked my vehicle with the radar first and then secondly identified my vehicle as being the one going that fast. I will post up the exact notes shortly but hope this is a start.