I was pulled over for a traffic offense, the officer knew a relative of mine as he put it, "on a personal and professional basis". He engaged me in conversation about htis person, and after the stop, he call his sister-in-law, whom this relative is friends with, and told all about pulling me over, what I'm accused of, and everything I said in the stop. It has also come to my attention that over this past weekend, the officer was at his sister=in-laws house showing video of my traffic stop among others online to people at the house. Can I use any of this information in my defense at my bench trial. Also, is there any law stateing you must have a County Sticker on your car tag?

The information and video regarding your stop is deemed “public material.” It is not private, therefore, you do not have much ammunition for your bench trial simply because the cop talked about it or played it for his friends. You would, however, have a possible defamation claim (provided you had some real damages to your reputation) if the officer lied about what happened to your relative or labeled you as a “real criminal.” You may gain more by bringing this behavior to the cop’s supervisor. What he is doing is humiliating and somewhat unprofessional and morally wrong! At least this might make him change his behavior in the future. Caution: You don’t want to anger the cop before your bench trial, so save talking to his superiors till after the trial. You might just want to have a heart-to-heart with him at trial and tell him that you’ve already by the humiliation enough and ask if he would recommend a no points violation to the prosecutor for you. If he does, game over! If not, you know what to do! …Andy yes, the county sticker is required.

Hope this helps,

George Stein 

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