[pct-l] ticket

[brick@fastpack.com (Brick Robbins)]

At 07:06 PM 10/11/01, - -hikerrob wrote:
>if the cop(ranger) shows up ferrgetaboutit, your guilty.even if the judge is
>sympathetic to your argument he(or she),will still fine you,but may reduce
>it. do`nt count on it. i dont know where you live but your best bet for a
>aquital(sorry i cant find my dictonary) is to try to get the ticket tranferd
>to the san fransisco federal court(this is a federal charge)where they are
>far to busy to prosecute this charge and will probally dismiss it if you
>fight it. ive done this in the seattle federal court and it worked for me.

A couple of things.

1) I think the court for Yosemite is the Federal Court in Fresno. They may 
have a court in the Valley, with a "judge-pro-tem." This is a lawyer acting 
as a judge, and they are often used for minor cases in busy courts, or in 
remote areas that don't have their own court. You DO NOT have to accept a 
court with a judge-pro-tem. If you decline to accept, they will move your 
case to a real court.

I fought a ticket issued in Mammoth, the court was in Bishop. There was a 
judge pro tem, which I declined to accept. That meant that the case was 
transferred to the Federal Court in Fresno.

By the time all this happened, the seasonal ranger had been laid off for 
the summer, and didn't show up in Fresno, so I won by defaul, HOWEVER 
***I*** had to show up, otherwise I would have had a warrant issued for my 
arrest for ' failure to appear. '

The trip to Fresno cost me more than the ticket would have, but I was going 
to the Valley anyway,so my timing for the trip was impacted, but I didn't 
make an extra trip.

2) Wilderness permits are issued for the whole trip at the point of entry. 
If you still have copies of your self issue wilderness permits from the 
SAME TRIP, you could show you attempted to comply, and argue that if you 
had understood how to fill out the form correctly, you would have been in 
compliance, therefor there was no "intent."

All, in all, fighting the ticket will cost you more in time and gas than 
just paying it.


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Brick Robbins                       mailto:brick@fastpack.com