ST Guy
Well-known member
After years on BARF I now find myself needing some advice/feedback from you LEO's.
Background: Last Thursday my wife has a haircut appointment and following that, an appointment at the Apple store, both in downtown Los Gatos. She also has some internet shopping packages she needs to mail. We live in the Willow Glen part of San Jose. She leaves the house, heading for the post office on Lincoln Ave and arriving at the parking lot behind the postoffice, she makes a left into a parking slot and before parking fully or even fully pulling in, she realizes that she doesn't have time for the post office business and she immediately pulls back out and heads off for Los Gatos.
The next day, late morning, she is surprised that three San Jose police officers are at our door and ask her to step outside on the porch. (From here on I don't know the exact order, but this is the gist of it.) They ask if she drove anywhere yesterday, she says that she went to Los Gatos, they ask if she'd been anywhere else like down the street that the postoffice is on and she doesn't recall doing so. They then say that she hit someone and that they have a photo of her car and a description of her. They then show her some damage on the right front of her car which is a total surprise to her. After they told her they had the photo of her car and a witness, it jogged her memory and she said yes, she did pull into the parking lot but left immediately because she would have been late for her appointments. They don't seem to believe that she could have hit the other car and not known it, even though she had her stereo on. In short they wrote her up for misdemeanor hit and run.
I should add that one of the three officers seemed very young and was consulting with the other two. I suspect an officer in training. This same young officer told her before walking away to consult with the other two that he was going to give her some time to "tell the truth" and insinuated that if she did, things would go easier for her. Of course, she didn't change her story because she didn't have any idea that she'd hit anyone. (Obviously, she now knows that she did and we've contacted our insurance to resolve the matter. That's not the issue, though. It's that she did not know she had hit the other vehicle and a conviction of of misdemeanor hit and run would not be right.)
So, a few questions:
1. Did the officers have any other course of action available to them other than writing her up as they did and letting the courts sort it out? For instance, I could imagine them believing her story (that she didn't hear or feel anything and did not know) and simply telling her how to take care of it. (Contact insurance, other party, etc., etc.) This is how many small town departments might take care of it.
2. The officers didn't believe that she wouldn't have known she'd hit the other car. I and others I've talked with who are knowledgeable on modern car construction say otherwise. It's obvious it was a glancing blow to the other car on her way into the parking spot. Thus, no head-on impact. Also, the front corner of her car (an early model Nissan Murano) is almost entirely plastic and easily deformed. I can easily push it in with my fingers. Finally, there is no permanent deformation of the plastic on the front of her car. Just scraped paint and some paint transfer from the other vehicle. Clean that off and some touch up paint and it'll look new again.
My contention is that it would be easy to not notice a scraping of her bumper against another vehicle when that bumper is plastic and what little noise might have been made would be masked by the stereo. The impact would gentle enough that it would easily be not noticed because the impact was mostly absorbed by the plastic bumper deforming and thus transferred very little force to her 4100 lb vehicle. What say you all? Is this completely plausible? Would the court believe it? I plan on supplying evidence in the form of photos of the scraped corner of her bumper, before and after cleaning off the paint transfer, of my pushing in the bumper with my fingers, maybe even a microfiche of the contraction of the front of her car showing how it's all plastic. What do you think the chances are that the court would believe she did not realize she'd hit anyone? Is it so hard to believe that a small scrap along an other car would be not be noticed? Heck, I'm sure all of us have been surprised when we notice a scrape/cut/bruise on our arm or leg but have no idea when or how it got there. If one can to physical damage to oneself and not know it when it happens, why would it be so hard to believe that contact between a rubber bumper and another vehicle could go unnoticed as well?
FYI, my wife has done volunteer work for the county and volunteers/teaches at various homeless shelters for both women and men. She is honest, has a strong moral compass and believes in personal responsibility. If she'd known she hit anthers car, she would have done the right thing, whether there is a law stating she should or not. She, nor I, want an unfair misdemeanor conviction on her record. Just for the principal of the thing. And, of course, because it might affect our insurance rates going ahead. (I've been with AAA for more than 40 years, so who knows what they might do.)
Finally, is hiring an attorney worth it in this case? Would the mere fact that we show up with an attorney look bad? How much would one cost for a simple case like this?
Oh, and in a strange twist of coincidence, we cruised by the parking lot on Saturday to see if we could identify the car/vehicle she hit and perhaps get photos or even find the owner to exchange info. No luck but as we're looking around, the three officers that were interrogating my wife on Thursday show up on some other business. I ended up having a conversation with the citing officer and I came away with two impressions: 1. That they really had no other option (in the system as it is) other than to write her up. True? And 2. that the citing officer may very well not even show up at her court date. (We informed him that we would not be contesting the fact of the accident, just that she could not be guilty of "running" because there was insufficient noise/force from the contact between the two vehicles to let her know it had occurred.
We also plan to get written a statement from a neighbor attesting to my wife's good character and that she'd never knowingly run after hitting. It's not in her character. This person, while not in law enforcement, is very highly placed and likely known to the majority of those in law enforcement and fire suppression in the south bay area. I'm presuming that a statement from him would help. Yes?
I'm probably missing some details and things I'd like to add, but this is wordy as it is so I'll just post and see what y'all have to say.
Thanks!
Background: Last Thursday my wife has a haircut appointment and following that, an appointment at the Apple store, both in downtown Los Gatos. She also has some internet shopping packages she needs to mail. We live in the Willow Glen part of San Jose. She leaves the house, heading for the post office on Lincoln Ave and arriving at the parking lot behind the postoffice, she makes a left into a parking slot and before parking fully or even fully pulling in, she realizes that she doesn't have time for the post office business and she immediately pulls back out and heads off for Los Gatos.
The next day, late morning, she is surprised that three San Jose police officers are at our door and ask her to step outside on the porch. (From here on I don't know the exact order, but this is the gist of it.) They ask if she drove anywhere yesterday, she says that she went to Los Gatos, they ask if she'd been anywhere else like down the street that the postoffice is on and she doesn't recall doing so. They then say that she hit someone and that they have a photo of her car and a description of her. They then show her some damage on the right front of her car which is a total surprise to her. After they told her they had the photo of her car and a witness, it jogged her memory and she said yes, she did pull into the parking lot but left immediately because she would have been late for her appointments. They don't seem to believe that she could have hit the other car and not known it, even though she had her stereo on. In short they wrote her up for misdemeanor hit and run.
I should add that one of the three officers seemed very young and was consulting with the other two. I suspect an officer in training. This same young officer told her before walking away to consult with the other two that he was going to give her some time to "tell the truth" and insinuated that if she did, things would go easier for her. Of course, she didn't change her story because she didn't have any idea that she'd hit anyone. (Obviously, she now knows that she did and we've contacted our insurance to resolve the matter. That's not the issue, though. It's that she did not know she had hit the other vehicle and a conviction of of misdemeanor hit and run would not be right.)
So, a few questions:
1. Did the officers have any other course of action available to them other than writing her up as they did and letting the courts sort it out? For instance, I could imagine them believing her story (that she didn't hear or feel anything and did not know) and simply telling her how to take care of it. (Contact insurance, other party, etc., etc.) This is how many small town departments might take care of it.
2. The officers didn't believe that she wouldn't have known she'd hit the other car. I and others I've talked with who are knowledgeable on modern car construction say otherwise. It's obvious it was a glancing blow to the other car on her way into the parking spot. Thus, no head-on impact. Also, the front corner of her car (an early model Nissan Murano) is almost entirely plastic and easily deformed. I can easily push it in with my fingers. Finally, there is no permanent deformation of the plastic on the front of her car. Just scraped paint and some paint transfer from the other vehicle. Clean that off and some touch up paint and it'll look new again.
My contention is that it would be easy to not notice a scraping of her bumper against another vehicle when that bumper is plastic and what little noise might have been made would be masked by the stereo. The impact would gentle enough that it would easily be not noticed because the impact was mostly absorbed by the plastic bumper deforming and thus transferred very little force to her 4100 lb vehicle. What say you all? Is this completely plausible? Would the court believe it? I plan on supplying evidence in the form of photos of the scraped corner of her bumper, before and after cleaning off the paint transfer, of my pushing in the bumper with my fingers, maybe even a microfiche of the contraction of the front of her car showing how it's all plastic. What do you think the chances are that the court would believe she did not realize she'd hit anyone? Is it so hard to believe that a small scrap along an other car would be not be noticed? Heck, I'm sure all of us have been surprised when we notice a scrape/cut/bruise on our arm or leg but have no idea when or how it got there. If one can to physical damage to oneself and not know it when it happens, why would it be so hard to believe that contact between a rubber bumper and another vehicle could go unnoticed as well?
FYI, my wife has done volunteer work for the county and volunteers/teaches at various homeless shelters for both women and men. She is honest, has a strong moral compass and believes in personal responsibility. If she'd known she hit anthers car, she would have done the right thing, whether there is a law stating she should or not. She, nor I, want an unfair misdemeanor conviction on her record. Just for the principal of the thing. And, of course, because it might affect our insurance rates going ahead. (I've been with AAA for more than 40 years, so who knows what they might do.)
Finally, is hiring an attorney worth it in this case? Would the mere fact that we show up with an attorney look bad? How much would one cost for a simple case like this?
Oh, and in a strange twist of coincidence, we cruised by the parking lot on Saturday to see if we could identify the car/vehicle she hit and perhaps get photos or even find the owner to exchange info. No luck but as we're looking around, the three officers that were interrogating my wife on Thursday show up on some other business. I ended up having a conversation with the citing officer and I came away with two impressions: 1. That they really had no other option (in the system as it is) other than to write her up. True? And 2. that the citing officer may very well not even show up at her court date. (We informed him that we would not be contesting the fact of the accident, just that she could not be guilty of "running" because there was insufficient noise/force from the contact between the two vehicles to let her know it had occurred.
We also plan to get written a statement from a neighbor attesting to my wife's good character and that she'd never knowingly run after hitting. It's not in her character. This person, while not in law enforcement, is very highly placed and likely known to the majority of those in law enforcement and fire suppression in the south bay area. I'm presuming that a statement from him would help. Yes?
I'm probably missing some details and things I'd like to add, but this is wordy as it is so I'll just post and see what y'all have to say.
Thanks!
Last edited:
