Friday I was driving my Lude in MD and I got pulled over by a cop for an unsafe lane change sayin I didnt use my turn signal to switch lanes. I told him I used my signal (which I honestly did), but he proceeded to give me a ticket. I fully plan to take this to court because he was 5 cars behind me, and I think I was profiled. The cop also gave me a work order for my Greddy Evo 2 exhaust saying it was not legal in MD because any exhaust that is not OEM in the state of MD is illegal. I think he was tryin to meet his quota and giving me a hard time because i look 17 (im 22) and driving a clean car. Does anyone know how to fight this in court accurately? i plan on using the argument that he was 5 cars behind me (meaning he cannot say without a doubt that I didnt use my signal) and that he gave me a repair order for an exhaust that is SAE legit (and Greddy is street legal in MD), lying about the whole OEM thing.

 

You can probably win the exhaust thing easily if it is in fact legal. The whole blinker use thing is your word against his (unless you have a witness) & in court the cops word unfortunately carries more weight than yours. If you know anyone with experience in law talk to them.

 

thanks. im takin it to court regardless, but i think i have a pretty good argument. the only reason i switched lanes was because a bus stopped in front of me and i was getting out of the way. i sure i can get at least probation before judgement, but im still pissed cause i used my signal. the key issue about the exhaust is that he didnt say it was too loud, but he simply said it was illegal because it wasnt oem, which is completely untrue. im takin it to a repair shop today, but they are just gonna sign off on the work order cause it is illegal. the docs should help prove he was just lookin for a stupid reason to ticket me.

 

About the turn signal... like he said ^^^ its his word against yours. However, the exhaust deal... theres lots of people with aftermarket exhausts in Maryland that dont get pulled for that... So I think you definately can make something out of that, because its not illegal or anything and like you said it is SAE legit
sorry to hear you had to deal with this **** man, its so dumb.

 

yea man. im just nervous about drivin on the street now. inspection stations are old school too. they say that it's not restricted so its illegal and it has to be OEM. that's BS cause Midas does not sell honda exhaust systems, so that means Midas is an illegal company. i read up on exhausts in MD and i know im right. i eventually got my paper signed, but i hope the next time i get pulled over for garbage like that, ill be in trouble. looks like it's time to look for an OEM exhaust (too bad my old one was never given back by the shop). i still think it's legal

 

what county you in bud?? i'm in Anne Arundel County i got friends in the AA county police department if you need some help or just get this whole thing settled... but if it was state trooper i can't help ya there...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bigj505 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yea man. im just nervous about drivin on the street now. inspection stations are old school too. they say that it's not restricted so its illegal and it has to be OEM. that's BS cause Midas does not sell honda exhaust systems, so that means Midas is an illegal company. i read up on exhausts in MD and i know im right. i eventually got my paper signed, but i hope the next time i get pulled over for garbage like that, ill be in trouble. looks like it's time to look for an OEM exhaust (too bad my old one was never given back by the shop). i still think it's legal</TD></TR></TABLE>

Maryland law says that any exhaust other than OEM is prohibited. It technically doesn't matter that your Greddy exhaust is certified by the manufacturer to be below 95db - your exhaust is not legal.
How that law is interpreted and enforced varies across the state though. Usually, police only enforce this law when the exhaust is excessively loud. I'm not surprised that since you made the effort to fight it that it was let go. They expect most people to just pay up and they'd rather not waste their time over a car exhaust.

If you were to build a custom exhaust with dual resonators and an OEM-style Magnaflow muffler, you wouldn't get ticketed. Stock look, near-stock sound, much better performance

 

the whole blinker thing, your probably not gonna get off of it like everyone else says.

the muffler thing, i would look into MD state laws. just because a muffler is carb certified or wahtever, doesnt mean every state recognizes carb, considering it is a california thing.

plus there are many loop holes in the law for officers to give a ticket based on thier sole discretion, if they feel it is too loud, then thats that, no need for dB meter, no need to check papers or anything, they win, you lose.

its worth a shot to goto court of course, but just in hopes that the cop is too lazy to come defend his case, other than that i probably wouldn't waste my breath.

if you don't want to get profiled, dont drive a car that stands out

 

with the muffler thing you could easily get off. just find someone with the same car/color and take a pic and tell them that that is your car (don't take your car to the court that day)

and with the turn signal i would just say that the cop was harrasing you. i would mention that if the cop was only five cars behind you why wouldn't you use your turn signal. i would tell the judge that you saw the cop behind you and that you always use your turn signal.

it comes down to your word against his but with that exhaust ticket you can tell the cop was looking to give you a ticket.

and just so you know the cop might not even show up to court, then they would have to throw the whole thing out.

i had a ticket before for speeding and when i went to court the cop never showed up. they tried to make me accept a plea bargin (where u plead guilty, pay the ticket, and pay like an extra $250 more in fines). so i told them that i wanted a trial and they said they would call the cop in and he would give his testomony and i would be found guilty. they told me that once the cop arrived i could no longer accept the plea but i told them that i was not speeding and i wanteed a trial. i was the last person to go and the cop never showed up, even though they told me he was on his way in, and the whole thing was thrown out

 

thanks guys. im going to court to at least get a probation before judgement, but it sucks that i did nothing wrong. the exhaust thing...um...yea, he didnt ever say it was loud. he just said it wasnt oem. it was just him pickin.

 

Dude I live in Maryland and let me tell you the judicial court system is NOT on your side in these types of cases. An easy way to get past the exhaust ticket is too take the car into any type of muffler shop and pay them $10 to "put on" the silencer to the car, and that will void the cops ticket agains the exhaust causing a noise violation. As for the turn signal just pleed not guilty and cross your fingers. If you have a friend of the family or anyone who will give you cheap legal council I would recomend it, as the judges in HoCO MD look at defendants with no lawers as a joke. but to him, his own. Anyways hope this helps some, and good luck

 

Finally someone not in California getting harrassed =D but seriously i think all you can do is look a the state laws ( someone already quoted it in the post ) and take the ociffer to court on his day off.. about the signal your probably toast there, as others said its his word against yours and your word doesnt mean anything unless your dad owns half of MD..

 

I wouldnt bother taking either of the two to court. Just pay the fines and move out of maryland to michigan or texas where they could give a **** less about exhausts.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JakeIsCool &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I wouldnt bother taking either of the two to court. Just pay the fines and move out of maryland to michigan or texas where they could give a **** less about exhausts.</TD></TR></TABLE>

lol... i wish i could. im only takin the ticket to court because the turn signal is a moving voilation. i can get the point removed and just pay court fees. i already got the exhaust taken care of