Bahnstoermer1647545488 Posted May 28, 2003 Report Share Posted May 28, 2003 Found this. Thought you all might like it..if you're wiling to think about it and decipher the logic it could be very useful for your next ticket. 1. Carefully analyze the facts and grasp the issues in each question before beginning to write. Spend time reading the question slowly and carefully. 2. State the issues and answers to each question concisely. Lengthy answers are not necessary. 3. Do not repeat questions in your answers. Write neatly and legibly on only one side of each page. 4. Number your answers to correspond with the question, e.g., "I-B-4." 5. If you feel it necessary to assume additional facts in any of the questions, give the facts that must be added and state why. 6. Do not write in the margin of the book. 7. All major questions are equally weighted unless otherwise indicated. Subparts are approximately equal but may be weighted slightly differently according to the number of issues involved in that subpart. 8. Write your pin number and the name and section number of the course on which you are being examined on the cover of each examination book. 9. If you use more than one book, indicate "Book One," "Book Two" and so forth on the cover of each book and write your fictitious name and number and the name and section number of the course on the cover of each examination book. 10. A GOOD ANSWER IS NOT NECESSARILY A LONG ANSWER. QUESTION I 90 per cent of test GENERAL BACKGROUND You are on duty in legal aid when your soon-to-be client, Max "Swifty" Schnell, comes into Southern's law clinic clutching a speeding ticket. "They claim I was going 54 on Main Street in Baker," he says. "It's my third speeding ticket in a year, and if I'm convicted, I'll probably lose my license and in any case my insurance will skyrocket. You've gotta defend me, whatever it takes. Whatever." You ascertain that the offense was clocked on radar. In your investigation, you learn that your client was clocked by Officer Bob Firston of the Baker Police using a hand-held TRW radar gun. He radioed your client's license number ahead to Sergeant Sue Segond of the Baker Police, who flagged your client down and wrote the ticket at a point about a half mile from the original point where your client was clocked. Your client was going northbound on Highway 19 (known in Baton Rouge as Scotland Avenue, which turns into Main Street in Baker). Your client tells you he was clocked at a point a full half mile south of Lavey Lane and, if your client is correct, that point is in an unincorporated part of East Baton Rouge Parish, not in the City of Baker. You contacted ATLA's data bank to obtain the name of a radar expert, and they gave you the name of James Maxwell, a retired Lieutenant Commander with the United States Navy with 25 years of service in marine, aviation and meteorological radar. Mr. Maxwell also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He retired from the Navy two years ago and has not qualified as a licensed electrical engineer in Louisiana. Mr. Maxwell says he hates police radar, "it's so shoddily built." He is willing to serve as an expert witness for no fee. At Mr. Maxwell's request, you obtain from TRW the instruction manual and a circuit diagram on the model of radar unit in question. Mr. Maxwell tells you he also needs the following at trial: (a) The actual radar gun used to clock Mr. Schnell; (b) A car battery hooked up to a lighter socket to power it; and, © The maintenance records on the actual radar gun used to clock Mr Schnell. Mr. Maxwell provides you with an article, "The Inadequacy of Speed-Gun Technology," from Radar Technology magazine. He also tells you of four lines of defense on the radar issue: (a) That the radar is inherently inaccurate in his opinion, and he can demonstrate this by obtaining "readings" showing various items in the courtroom are moving when they are not; (b) That the radar was not properly maintained; © That the radar was not properly calibrated at the time of its use by the officer using it; (d) That the radar was not used properly, resulting in a danger of false readings from radar waves bouncing off of traffic signs vibrating in the wind, or off of heavy vehicles in the distance, or even off of railroad trains on the tracks that run parallel to Highway 19 in Baker. I-A. Please answer the following: I-A-1. How do you intend to arrange to have the radar gun at the city court? Discuss. I-A-2. You wish to show to Mr. Maxwell the police radio technician's repair and maintenance records on the radar unit in order that he may express an opinion on whether the radar unit was properly maintained. How do you intend to obtain the radar maintenance records, and how do you intend to prove them up in court? Are there several ways to accomplish this? Is one of these ways more advantageous to your client? Discuss. I-A-3. How do you intend to prove that the instruction manual and circuit diagram you are holding, which you obtained from the manufacturer, is in fact the correct manual and diagram for this particular radar? Discuss. I-B. Please answer the following: I-B-1. On the day of trial Officer Firston does not show up. May Sergeant Segond testify that she was with him when he calibrated the speed gun that day, and that he did so properly, using two different tuning forks, and that he calibrated the gun both before and after the arrest? Discuss your objection and the court's probable ruling. I-B-2. May Sergeant Segond testify in Officer Firston's absence that Officer Firston radioed the license number and the speed of the defendant's vehicle to her, stating that speed as 70 miles per hour? Discuss your objection and the court's probable ruling. I-B-3. Sergeant Segond signed off on Officer Firston's written report of the incident, as she is his supervisor. May the report be admitted to show Officer Firston's proper calibration of the radar unit and the reading he took of Mr. Schnell's speed? I-B-4. The city prosecutor proposes to call Officer Bob Thursday. He will testify if permitted that he was standing by the side of the road (giving a ticket to another motorist) on the Thursday prior to the date your client was ticketed, and he saw your client speed by at what he would estimate to be seventy miles per hour. Discuss your objection and the court's probable ruling. I-B-5. May the court take judicial notice of the accuracy of radar? Discuss. I-C. Please answer the following: I-C-1. The prosecution has not finished its case, and Officer Firston has just come through the door. Now that he is present in court, may Sergeant Segond testify that Officer Firston radioed the license number and the speed of the defendant's vehicle to her, and that she stopped the correct vehicle as described by Officer Firston? Discuss your objection and the court's probable ruling. I-C-2. May Officer Firston testify that he was trained in radar operation at the police academy and that in his opinion radar is accurate? Discuss your objection and the court's probable ruling. I-C-3. You wish to use the article from Radar Technology to cross-examine Officer Firston. Can you? How do you intend to accomplish this? Discuss. I-D. Please answer the following: I-D-1. You wish to call Robert Ryder, your client's neighbor. He will testify that he often carpools with your client, that he has ridden as a passenger on this exact route with your client driving on at least fifty occasions in the last six months, and that your client has never exceeded the speed limit. May he so testify? Discuss. I-D-2. You wish to prove that the place at which your client was clocked was outside of city limits and therefore beyond the officer's jurisdiction and in no case within the jurisdiction of the City Court of the City of Baker. How do you intend to accomplish this? Discuss. I-D-3. You wish to prove that the speed limit sign immediately prior to the place where your client was clocked was not sufficiently large to comply with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices adopted by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. How do you intend to get the manual into evidence, and how do you intend to prove the sign is not sufficiently large? I-D-4. If your client testifies, may the prosecution impeach him with his two prior speeding convictions? Discuss your objection and the court's probable ruling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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