CALIFORNIA - You Can Say, "Your Honor," in Yuba City

Mark Temple

October 21, 2011 - Yuba City, CA

Another NOT GUILTY verdict Friday in the Yuba City, CA series of helmet tickets written during the August 13th charity run.
The YCPD wrote over a dozen helmet tickets to riders who were participating in a charity run to help a girl whose father had been killed in a truck accident.
The last of the helmet trials (we are aware of) was the morning of October 21. The District Attorney's office sent a DA rep to prosecute - a first out of all the tickets.
Mark Temple was subpoenaed and scheduled to testify as an Expert Witness. This clearly made the DA nervous, as he was pumping us for info before the trial.
He didn't get any.
The defendant (Rich) was well prepared.  The cop brought helmets as evidence to submit. So did we. We didn't even need to use them, though.
The cop got 4 words out of his mouth before Rich "objected" to the cop reading from his notes. The Judge agreed and instructed the cop not to read his testimony. The cop finished testifying and the DA added some legal details about how the defendant's helmet didn't have a DOT sticker on it. 
It was time for Rich to cross-examine the cop.
Before Rich could ask a single question, the Judge stopped the trial and based the NOT GUILTY verdict on Penal Code 1118, and the fact the DA did not show any law requiring a helmet wearer to keep the inside and outside DOT sticker on the helmet after he buys it. Consumer info for the point of sale only.
See? It is all about Probable Cause. The prosecution forgot to put a case together.
Thanks, Your Honor. You can say "honor," and mean it, when you are talking about Judge Chandler.
This makes every Yuba City ticket (that we know of) either dismissed or not guilty, except one, and that appeal should be easy.
The only money you can't get back is the $25 the guys paid who showed proof of correction. Too bad there was no correction to be made, and the ticket was a 4th Amendment violation.  Money for nothin' - maybe they get their chicks are for free...
Next stop after court was to the PD to file the Internal Affairs complaint.
Now, Rich is ordering the trial transcript, and he got the Clerk's docket and Minutes of the trial. False Arrest charges against the officer, or Malicious Prosecution charges have not been filed at this time.
This is why the CHP halted the writing of helmet tickets since 2009.

Mark Temple

BOLT of California 
Guerrilla Lawfare 
Repeal It Or Feel It 

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government,
so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution
so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."
    Thomas Jefferson