Legal Question in Criminal Law in Colorado

careless driving charge definition

Make sure the officer only testifies as to what he personally witnessed and anything you might have told him and object to any hearsay (statements as to what anyone else told him) and any guessing as to what happened. If he attempts to offer anything resembling "accident reconsctruction" object to his testifying without being qualifies as an expert witness, and if he tries to qualify as an expert witness ask the court to allow you to conduct your own examination of his qualifications, and then ASK hims about them, but JUST about his qualifications (what schools, what seminars, what special training, AND WHAT INDEPENDENT TESTING OF HIS SKILLS HE MIGHT HAVE GONE THROUGH.During your regular cross examination of the officer make certain you get him to admit that the cause of the accident could have been "*****" (fill it in with whatever did happen), then once he has admitted it could have happened that way, ask him if there is any way he can tell that the accident was more likely to have resulted from your reckless driving than from what did in fact happen.Once the officer is done, tell the court you want to "Move for dismissal because of the state's failure to prove guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."If the court denies the motion, only then do you testify to give your side.