Gross Polluter ticket. Court's tryin to jack me

[Var]

On 11/16/04 i was exiting the mission street exit in daly city (i was southbound on 280). So this WRX was behind me and he was kinda provoking me and the exit was a really tight right hand turn. So i flew through the turn and merged with street traffic and 2 bike cops got scared cause it "looked like i was gonna fly out of my lane and hit them cause i was going too fast" even though i didnt make any tire noise at all(thank you RA1's) and i stayed in my lane. So anyways, i got pulled over in an In n' Out parking lot. . At first he hassled me about my harness and i told him it was connected to the factory mounting points, then my roll cage just cause, then the cop starting lecturing. I admitted to everything and was very polite. Then he told me to pop my hood. So i did. He said he was gonna be nice and not give me a wreckless driving ticket so he gave me a ticket for my intake instead. I get the ticket and it says "Gross Polluter" on it. First of all that sounds out of place, but maybe they just have a general citation for underhood things.


Fast forward to 2 weeks after the fact. I was looking at the ticket. I looked it over for like 5 minutes. There was NO appearance date. It looked like this

when: ON OR BEFORE AT 8:30AM

SO i called the court. I gave them my citation number and i explained my situation. The clerk said that when there is no date on the ticket it means it's invalid. She also said that the citation number wasnt even in the system. I was home free.. i couldnt believe it.

Fast forward to last night. I get home from work and i see a letter on the counter with my name on it from Superior Court. It's a FTA(Failure to Appear) notice. WTF!? the fine went from 0 dollars(i needed to get it smogged and take the certificate to court) to 328 dollars for a FTA.

Am I liable for this shit?



Also if anyone knows...i got a smog license and i work at a Test Only center. Test Only centers are allowed to certify Gross Polluters. Can i smog my own car or does it have to go to a ref station?

[Ritz S14]

IIRC. If you get pulled over for having anything modified engine wise, you must go to a ref. The ref would produce a functional check on whatever that is modified. Then ofcourse there's the tail pipe asm emisisons test.

[MakotoS13]

and the truth shall set you free. tell the judge what happened and deny all liability.

[nistech]

u can smog ur own car u should know this if u are a smog tech. and i think that since ur car is a gross polluter u are only gonna get test only from now on. i m a smog tech also looking for a job at a test only station :)

[Var]

u can smog ur own car u should know this if u are a smog tech. and i think that since ur car is a gross polluter u are only gonna get test only from now on. i m a smog tech also looking for a job at a test only station :)



I know i can certify Gross Polluters, but i didnt know i was allowed to certify a car that has a citation. RitzS14 also has a smog license and he is under the impression that i have to go to a ref. I'm gonna call the ref center and ask them. i'll post back about what happens.

My car was a test only anyways cause it has high mileage. I dont care.

[kazuo]

Var,

I think that when you get cited for engine mods they usually have to check "correctable" where its basically a fix-it, or not correectable, where you have to take it to a ref.

But you got cited for gross polluter, which I am not even sure is the same thing...

In any case, you called the court house, they told you the ticket was invalid, and the citation has no court date.

Makaki is right, just go and tell those fools what's up and that you're not liable for any of it as they fucked up.

[sykikchimp]

talk to the clerk at the courthouse. tell them what happened. They will either take care of it, or tell you to talk to the DA. Just explain what is happening, and they will take care of it.

Just go to the courthouse ASAP. The longer you wait, the worse it looks.

[Var]

I just called the clerk and she says her computer shows no FTA notice. She said that's just a courtesy notice. I told her it says "FAILURE TO APPEAR" at the top and she said that's wierd. She said i have to get the problem corrected and pay $338.50. Has anyone ever got one of these tickets before? On my ticket it says it's not correctable so how can i get it corrected? Also technically he cant call my car a gross polluter without running a smog check on it first. So i dont get it. Can i fight this in court and win? I dont feel like getting a lawyer. I'm confused and pissed off. How do i contact the DA?

[Var]

I did some more research.

The Violation Code on my ticket is 27156A.
This code reads

27156. (a) No person shall operate or leave standing upon any highway any motor vehicle which is a gross polluter, as defined in Section 39032.5 of the Health and Safety Code.


So i looked up the health and saftey code 39032.5 and it reads

39032.5. "Gross polluter" means a vehicle with excess hydrocarbon,
carbon monoxide, or oxides of nitrogen emissions as established by
the department in consultation with the state board


This is not consistent with what he cited me for. The code was one letter off. If he had written 27156B instead of 27156A, the code reads as follows.

(b) No person shall operate or leave standing upon any highway any motor vehicle which is required to be equipped with a motor vehicle pollution control device under Part 5 (commencing with Section 43000) of Division 26 of the Health and Safety Code or any other certified motor vehicle pollution control device required by any other state law or any rule or regulation adopted pursuant to that law, or required to be equipped with a motor vehicle pollution control device pursuant to the National Emission Standards Act (42 U.S.C. Secs. 1857f-1 to 1857f-7, inclusive) and the standards and regulations adopted pursuant to that federal act, unless the motor vehicle is equipped with the required motor vehicle pollution control device which is correctly installed and in operating condition. No person shall disconnect, modify, or alter any such required device.

This is consistent with what he said he was citing me for. Can i get away with this technicality. I need advice from those than know. thanks

[Muzzy]

screw callin..go there in person and explain wut happened and show them on the ticket that u were cited for the wrongly and no appearence date was given. its totally their fault. present them with all the info.

i almost got screw like that for my licanse....$150,=..fuk that i explained/contested it and they jus waved it. so go there in person. it is easier to handle i in person

[thx247]

Sounds like you have enough of a case to get it all thrown out. Explain to the judge what happened basically. The FTA is a problem though, you should have followed up on it until a month later to see if the citation date came up in the system. 2 weeks sometimes isn't long enough for it to be entered. Your not supposed to know that though so its not like its your fault.

Get another court date and bring it before the judge. The paper work you have might tell you if you can write in a letter or not. That would just save you the effort of going down there. Trial by written declaration irrc.

[driftyour40]

Okay, you’re a smog tech. You should know the law then. Your car cannot be determined a gross polluter w/ out a tail sniffer determining it. You can test your car if you want all god dam day. What kind of intake is it and dose it have a carb approval and dose it incorporate all stock vehicle pollution control devices, and by the way all this sounds you really just need to appear in court before a judge and have the ticket and fines dismissed.

[sr240mike]

Var, was this while you were driving Pinky?

[Var]

Var, was this while you were driving Pinky?


no i was driving my black one. pinky only sees trackdays. i wish it was pinky, i wouldnt care cause i dont really have to register it if i dont wanna

[Jessi]

Hahaha what a rip. No, you are not liable for any of that. Call the court house back and tell them you got that letter. Simply explain that since there was no date to appear in court, you had no choice. What were you suppose to do? Goto court everyday to see if that was your day? C'mon. That's the cops own fault, not yours. Explain to them what the woman said on the phone that you talked to the first time you called as well. I think even in Wisconsin, if the officer didn't fill out an area on the ticket.. it's invaild and gets dropped. :P

[nistech]

i remember a test question about this i just cant remember the whole question damn it.
i dont think u need to go to the ref.
i just thought about failing my own car if i was testing my car and fail it for a MIL lmao
keep us updated

[Var]

clerk said i have to go to a ref but the thing is the ticket isnt correctable, so they can lick my nuts until they straighten things out.

[NZO]

Worst case you can just pay the fine. Even if its non-correctable you can send them a few hundred dollars and they will forget this ever happened.

[idlafie]

Man...it sounds like the typical traffic court BS...

Best bet is go down to court IN PERSON and handle everything yourself. Make sure you get the name of the person you spoke to AND his employee number along with any written documentation verifying that you were there in that office. If you should happen to go in front of a judge, ask the judge or court clerk for some sort of reciept or proof that the citation was dismissed.

FTA citations should be taken VERY SERIOUSLY whether they are in the system or not. FTA citations have a NASTY habit of popping into the system & biting you in the ass when you least expect it. The cop who pulls you over in the future and finds your FTA in the system will arrest you for the FTA and won't give a damn what excuse you give him - he's heard them all before. He's gonna drag you in to the station and book you whether you like it or not...period! You won't be released till either you bail out, (not very likely), or you make an appearance before the judge usually within 48 hours, (longer if it's the weekend).

Best bet is, just take the car down to a NEUTRAL referee, have the car smog tested, take proof of the results to the judge, explain what happened including showing the original citation, notice in the mail & FTA notice and let the judge make the call. If you explain everything well, and the judge is in a nice mood, he'll throw all that shit out & get it taken care of for you.

Anyhow, good luck with that mess....and thank the traffic courts for screwing you over...you're gonna need it...

ID

[SimpleSexy180]

Also remember california needs money so that why there fucken with you :rolleyes:

[nightwalker]

seriously! California is trying as fuckin hard as they can to make as much money as possible. It's called government business. And traffic is the number one money maker for Cali.

I'm going through some bullshit right now for some crap ticket an Elk Grove cop wrote me. 6 different citations. Being a smog tech helps, but fuck, this shit is frustrating!