Jailed over Duff Beer Lemons car. (Page 2 of 2)

@rmcdaniels,

I stumbled across this thread a bit late, and am incredulous.  A bit of history for some who may not be familiar:  At the last CMP race of 2010, one of our drivers, Rob, lost his brakes on the main straightaway at CMP, and came into the hard right hander at the end carrying way, way too much speed as a result.  Our Tunachucker Volvo Amazon crashed into the Duff Honda with enough force to twist up the front subframe on our car and render the Honda undrivable as well. 

While this wasn't a major deal for us- we trailer our 122 to and from the race- I had found out the night before that the Honda is driven to and from races.  (sidebar, I found this out while wandering the paddock, slightly inebriated, at 2AM searching for signs of life.  I found them- Roger was knee deep in some helpless Honda plant scattered across 4 sheets of plywood that also contained something that appeared to be a car- and we had a nice conversation despite him obviously being in the midst of something very icky)

Anyway, after the awards ceremony I went searching for the Duff Beer team- I felt extrememly bad about the incident, even though it was an accident (our Volvo sprung a massive hydraulic leak and, being a pre-1967 car, had only a single pot master cylinder) I wanted to apologize to them.  I found Roger, and told him how sorry I was about the incident and how bad I felt about it.  He was absolutely, amazingly forgiving and not even phased about it.  His feeling was, it happens, its a part of racing, he'd leve the car at CMP and come back and fix it, and drive it home.  He was truly a class act.  I couldn't imagine a nicer fellow.

This incident with the NC inspectors is absolutely abhorrent.  I sincerely hope everything comes out in your favor; I doubt you'll ever see a dime of that money again but as long as your record stays clear and the neighbors stay at bay, that's the best you can hope for.

And like another poster said, move to SC.  No inspections.  We're a very car friendly state. 

See you on the track.

That's not a bad idea if you want to make sure that you stay firmly in the middle of the bullseye. I'm not meaning to imply that unveiling corruption shouldn't be done, but it does come with a price. You've gotta be willing to pay that price before you undertake this exercise.

I've seen that video posted by the OP, and it's very instructive. If you ask any criminal defense lawyer "what should I say if I get arrested," 99% of them will tell you that the first and only words out of your mouth should be "I want to see my lawyer" because it cuts off the interrogation at the outset before you can say something stupid that might implicate you in a crime that you did not commit. Police are given a wide latitude in their interrogations by the courts (including the use of completely fabricated evidence and outright lying) in their attempts to evoke a confession out of a suspect. I have personally witnessed suspects confess to crimes for which they were totally and 100% innocent. It would be a Jedi mind trick if it weren't so onerous.

I don't know about going after the police on this issue. The standard for obtaining an arrest warrant is pretty low, basically that someone might reasonably believe based on the circumstances that I might have committed a crime. The circumstances are that I failed an inspection with multiple problems, then immediately took the car to another inspector who was observed doing improper inspections and passed the car. A reasonable person looking at those circumstances might believe that I solicited an improper inspection for a car that would not pass a proper inspection, which is what I was charged with. Subsequent inspections and any excuses or explanations from me do not have to be taken into account. I had time to fix the car for the third inspection and I could be lying.

In California civil court, tort lawsuits for wrongful arrest are common. A lot of them are bogus--pitching a fit at the DMV and then getting arrested is typical--but looking at the facts here, I think you should at least call your lawyer and ask his advice about pursuing a civil action against the police agency. At the very least to get your fees back.

Sounds like you got caught in the middle of an investigation of the second inspector. A bad deal to be caught in. Good luck with whatever way you decide to handle it.
BTW, I imagine you eagerly offered advice on how to properly handle the situation. Did it go something like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvVMTyaZ … re=related

um, respectfully Your Honor.  bootlegging and the sport it created has never actually been legal in these here parts.  so while i see your point i must say no; tobacco, sweet potatoes and to a lesser extent cotton, built North Carolina.  granted, IBM helped some too.  but those bastages are criminals as best i can tell.

Roger, i might let this drop were i you.  i've seen your car parked less than three blocks from the governor's office.  i mean drop as in openly, it might not hurt to continue this effort under the radar so to speak.  THSCC does have a rather prominent member of the N&O staff in its membership.

I keep telling my husband that I could be out chasing guys like all the other girls.....

This is an awesome story, and I think you deserve a trophy.

Let me know how that works out for you.

NC DMV has become out of hand. We are a dealership and they have setup across I77 with Binoculars to see that my inspector was aiming headlights. What a waste of tax payers $$$$.

Corruption should be fought.  At the very least file a formal complaint against the po.  All it takes for evil to win is for good to do nothing.

And it's not necessarily corruption. Like I said earlier, the standard for obtaining a warrant was arguably met.