OHTA.ca

Hi there,

I received a ticket for DISOBEY STOP SIGN under the highway traffic act section 136(1)(A) a handful of months ago. My court date is today at 1:30pm.

I requested disclosure and finally received the officers files yesterday, along with a DVD video of my offense.

After going through the notes and watching the video, it's quite obvious that I am guilty and I ran the stop sign.

I was wondering what my options are from here?

There is obviously no point in trying to plead not guilty and fight my case as the video blatantly shows me doing a rolling stop.

Is there any way to plead guilty to a lesser charge (hopefully removing the demerit points) like I would have been able to if I chose option 2 and met for early resolution with a prosecutor? Or do I just have to plead guilty to the full offense?

This was my first ticket ever, and foolishly I listened to all my friends who said "Fight it, the cops never show up". Now I understand that since 2013, the officer pretty much has to show up as it is part of his pay... And even with the notes/video, I feel like I have no chance in defending myself

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

There is still a chance that the officer is a no show and there is a good chance that you can plead guilty to a reduced charge. You could also to for more time to review the evidence because you just received disclosure yesterday and haven't had a chance to review it. Good luck.

ynotp wrote:There is still a chance that the officer is a no show and there is a good chance that you can plead guilty to a reduced charge. You could also to for more time to review the evidence because you just received disclosure yesterday and haven't had a chance to review it. Good luck.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.

If the cop is a no show, is the case automatically thrown out? Or can they use his case notes as evidence and proceed with the trial?

They need the officer (crown witness) to appear in court and testify against you. If your court is anywhere in the GTA, your charge will most likely get withdrawn because they're way too congested to re-schedule.

They will most likely plea-bargain down to HTA S.182 - Disobey Sign, which carries two demerit points rather than three. They will most likely reduce the fine as well. I don't think there are any alternate HTA offences that don't carry demerit points, except a municipal by-law for disobeying that stop sign.