Two months ago, I unfortunately received a letter and traffic citation in the mail relating to the car accident on February 18th. Apparently, the other party lied and supplied so-called witnesses that claimed that I blatantly sped and ran a red light. The Orange County Sheriff’s department cited me for failing to yield right-of-way in the intersection and felt that the other party was legally in the intersection. After obtaining the report and spending numerous hours putting together my defense, I decided to opt to contest the traffic citation in court in a trial. Shortly after the car accident, I discovered I accidentally obtained absolute proof of what exactly happened during the accident. Thus, I am the only person who can prove who is actually at fault and what actually happened. After combing over the police report with a fine-tooth comb, I detailed numerous factual errors and inconsistencies. Additionally, the Orange County Sheriff’s department never determined several important factors include speed of either vehicle. So, in April, I went to the Harbor Justice Center in Laguna Hills, requested to contest the citation in trial, and paid bail.

Last Tuesday, my wife and I went to the Harbor Justice Center in Laguna Hills to attend trial for the traffic citation. We waited outside the courtroom doors until they opened about ten minutes late. Once the doors opened, the bailiff had everybody enter the court with law enforcement on the left-side, and defendants and witnesses seated on the right-side in the jury area. The judge read off the names of each defendant, officer, and witness to determine who was present in the courtroom. After reading the names, I waited in the jury area as there were four other cases before mine. Three of the defendants were likely banking that the officer would fail to show but opted for traffic school when the officer did show. The fourth defendant attempted to contest the traffic citation, but ultimately failed when the judge ruled he was guilty.

Finally, the judge called my name and summoned me to the defendant's table. The officer took a seat at the plaintiff's table and summoned numerous witnesses into the seats behind him to testify against me. The judge has the prosecution start their case in which the citing officer drew a diagram of the intersection onto a chalkboard and describe his version of events. The judge asked me if I agreed and I made some corrections as they were going to be important later in my defense. Afterwards, each witness was summoned to testify against me. After a witness testified, I was allowed an opportunity to cross-examine the witness where I attempted to exploit the witness’ inconsistencies and flaws in their testimony. After all the witnesses were summoned, the judge finally paused for a second and informed the prosecution that they have no credible witnesses (including the other party). The judge further elaborated that since this is a criminal trial, he is not convinced I might be guilty based upon the prosecution’s evidence and witnesses, and thus, there is no reason for the trial to continue. The judge finally ruled that I was not guilty and banged his gavel. Finally, each party, the witnesses, and the citing officer left the courtroom, and then the citing officer held a debriefing where he thanked the witnesses for their testimony and not to be discouraged because justice did not prevail. I joined in the crowd and eventually the officer noticed my presence, so he pulled me aside to have a private discussion about how I should consider myself lucky to have won the case. I informed him that I had considerable evidence to prove my innocent should the trial have proceeded any further. I explained that I had concrete proof the other party and witnesses were lying under oath including elaborating on the evidence I had (I brought a binder with documents and a notebook computer in the courtroom for a reason). The court clerk called my name, so I left the conversation to receive a document detailing the verdict and results from the clerk.

Fortunately, I never revealed to the other party or witnesses what evidence I have against everybody. I cannot reveal the evidence online since the other party, a lawyer, or an insurance company might find this website. However, all in all, the pendulum has swung in my favor.