Legal Question in Traffic Law in Iowa

I�m a 23 year old male from Iowa and I got pulled over the other day while driving and was given a ticket.

At first the cop didn�t really give me a reason for pulling me over � other then that I made a few lane changes and because the street was kind of busy, he felt the need to give me a ticket.

This is what happened: I was in the left lane behind some cars waiting to turn left (its not a turn lane) and I turned my signal on, merged over to the right lane, went through the intersection then turned my turn signal back on and got over into the left lane. A few blocks down I did it again. I wasn�t in a hurry, i just didn�t feel like sitting behind people that were going to be waiting awhile to make a left turn when my turn wasn�t for several blocks. I wasn�t speeding, I was using my turn signal, I didn�t change lanes in an intersection, and each time I changed lanes I had plenty of room to change lanes. When the cop came to my window he said that he was giving me a citation because I�ve had one in the last 12. Which I then corrected him and stated that my last citation was over 14 months ago. His reply was �Well the guy must have gone back further, but that isn�t the reason I am giving you a ticket.� I took the ticket and went on my way.

Either way, his �reasons� were very vague and almost non-existent.

Three hours later he knocks at my door. He went on to say that he was a new cop and that this was his 6th day in a row and was having kind of an off day. He then went on to say that he wrote my citation for the wrong thing, and was wondering if I would be willing to give it back to him so he could write a new one up for the correct citation. He apparently didn�t want to have to do the extra paper work and such to change it through the courts or whatever. (The dollar amount for the fine didn�t change) I didn�t really know whether or not I should agree but I did give it back to him. As he was writing up the �correct� citation he kept apologizing to me for giving me a citation and thanking me for being so understanding. Before he left he asked if I had any other questions or anything. I said to him �well you might want to give me my ticket� (he had written the ticket up and put it back in his box without handing me my copy) He was about to walk away without giving me a ticket. That is how off this cop was. Frankly this kind of shows that he didn�t have the best of judgment that day. The �wrong� citation was written for �Unsafe Passing� the citation that I currently have is for �improper use of lane/improper lane changes�

I am going to take this to court because I feel I didn�t do anything illegal and that just because the cop was having a bad day, doesn�t mean I should get screwed because of it.

My real question is, what should I say to the judge at the court hearing and what should I leave out? I don�t want to say too much and get myself in more trouble.

Thanks

BD

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