Confused about getting pulled over the other night. Help??

[haileejeanne]

The other day at 1:30 in the morning I was driving home from a friends house. I saw a cop on a side road so I made sure I was doing the speed limit. He got behind me and started following me so I just kept on driving as I was. About two minutes later he put his lights on and pulled me over. When he approached the car he asked for my license and registration and gave me no reason of why he pulled me over or even mentioned it. I am under 18 and it is against the law where I live to drive past 11 pm if you are, so I just came right out and told him I knew I was out past curfew. Anyways he told me I would have to have my parents come to drive the car home. After coming up to my car and going back to his several times he finally returned with a citation for driving past curfew on a junior license and then says, "Oh I guess I should probably tell you why I pulled you over. You were swerving." If this was the case, that I really was swerving...shouldn't he have told me that right off the bat and wouldn't he be suspicious of me having been under the influence? He told me to take it to court and plead not guilty also so I am really confused on the whole thing. Mainly I just want to know if he was wrong by not telling me why I was pulled over and if I really was swerving why he did not assume I was drinking and did not question me about it right away.:confused:

[BJJVad]

The other day at 1:30 in the morning I was driving home from a friends house. I saw a cop on a side road so I made sure I was doing the speed limit. He got behind me and started following me so I just kept on driving as I was. About two minutes later he put his lights on and pulled me over. When he approached the car he asked for my license and registration and gave me no reason of why he pulled me over or even mentioned it. I am under 18 and it is against the law where I live to drive past 11 pm if you are, so I just came right out and told him I knew I was out past curfew. Anyways he told me I would have to have my parents come to drive the car home. After coming up to my car and going back to his several times he finally returned with a citation for driving past curfew on a junior license and then says, "Oh I guess I should probably tell you why I pulled you over. You were swerving." If this was the case, that I really was swerving...shouldn't he have told me that right off the bat and wouldn't he be suspicious of me having been under the influence? He told me to take it to court and plead not guilty also so I am really confused on the whole thing. Mainly I just want to know if he was wrong by not telling me why I was pulled over and if I really was swerving why he did not assume I was drinking and did not question me about it right away.:confused:

There is no time frame that states exactly when he has to tell you why you were stopped. When you contact someone that is under the influence, you can tell right away on contact if they have been drinking. FST's are conducted to verify an Officer's suspicions of intoxication.

[GoDirectly2Jail]

Depends on locality, but generally no, he does not have to tell you why he stopped you immediately upon pulling you over. If you are asking why you didn't have to perform field sobriety tests, there are a multitude of reasons. The only one who knows for sure is the officer that stopped you.

[Creeker]

If he had stopped you and told you he stopped you because you looked too young to be out driving after curfew and spotted the pacifier in your mouth, that would be streotyping now, wouldn't it?

I suspect that you swerved when you saw him, but might not have realised it... or just left it out of your statement/question.

What were you doing while you were out breaking the law?

[haileejeanne]

I was driving home from a friends house and I may have swerved when I saw him but other then that I was not aware I was swerving.

[Creeker]

I was driving home from a friends house and I may have swerved when I saw him but other then that I was not aware I was swerving.

It only takes one.

[haileejeanne]

Any advice about pleading not guilty since this is what he told me to do? I don't really understand why he would tell me to do this since obviously there is no way of denying what I did.

[Creeker]

Any advice about pleading not guilty since this is what he told me to do? I don't really understand why he would tell me to do this since obviously there is no way of denying what I did.

Since you are "manning up" to your responsibilities, you could probably post your bond, not show up for Court and be found guilty in your absence.

I don't know why he would have told you to plead NG, so you may want to call him and ask for clarification.

We can't begin to use our powers of ESP until he conforms to the mandatory "Mind Meld" that he must not have gotten the e-mail on, yet.

You guys in your state must still have dial up.

[BJJVad]

Being that we were not there at the time of the incident we can't know whether he was trying to cut you a break after citing you the citation or facetious.

Either way, you were guilty of the curfew.

[ChesCopPodz]

Doesn't have to tell you right away why you were stopped.


And I can usually tell, or smell, right off the bat if someone's been drinking. No need to do any further DUI investigation if right away I know they aren't DUI

[mcsap]

The legal basis for a stop is reasonable suspicion. That means I need to be able to reasonbly articulate that a crime has occurred or is ocurring. If I see someone who looks YOUNG out after cufrew hours , I have RS to believe that a " crime is occurring".

It doesn't have to be a bank robbery , just a simple traffic violation is enough. And from such a stop two nights ago by one of my guys, he got a NICE big freezer bag full of mushrooms. And this kid ( who he didn't know it was him at first) was popped several months ago for MJ and was on probation. He was within 1000 feet of school property and the bag was big enough to charge him with being a dealer ( we call it PWI).

He was also hauled in for his first DUI from the MJ that night.

All at the age of 17.

Curfew hours.

[Ispbear]

Any advice about pleading not guilty since this is what he told me to do? I don't really understand why he would tell me to do this since obviously there is no way of denying what I did.

A lot of officers will explain the citation and what your courses of action are. I'm guessing that he said, "if you want to plead not guilty, yada, yada, yada."
Your young and were probably a little nervous, since you knew you were doing something that you weren't suppose too. It has a tendency of making it hard to concentrate on what was being explained to you.

[TX-LEO]

then says, "Oh I guess I should probably tell you why I pulled you over. You were swerving."

Case closed, you know why you were stopped. Next question.