Legal Question in Traffic Law in Missouri

I live in an apartment building. I awoke one morning to find a ticket on my car --- which was parked in my apartment building's small parking lot. The ticket was for "expired vehicle registration sticker on license plate." Unbeknownst to me, the sticker must have been stolen. " My car has been properly registered every year. I always put the new registration sticker on my car each year when it comes up for renewal.

(as an aside: In St Louis, there are high incidents of crime related to stolen vechile registration stickers. I believe that my sticker was stolen)

Immediately after noticing my ticket, I purchased a REPLACEMENT registration sticker for the one that must have been stolen, and submitted a plea of "not guilty" to my ticket.

My question goes back to a point I made in the description of my incident --- my car was legally parked in my apartment's small parking lot. Approximately 6 cars fit in this small lot... one car per unit. My car was not on a city street, or even in reasonable ease of public view. To get to this parking lot, one has to go into a back alley behind the building. You cannot see my car while walking on the sidewalk or in the neighborhood --- one has to be wandering through the back alley of this building. ONLY residents of my apartment building may park in this parking lot. There is a sign that clearly indicates that this is private property and only residents may park here.

Was it lawful for the police to give me a ticket for "expired vehicle registration"? I do not believe they had the right to give me a ticket when my car was parked, not being driven, and on private property.

If I had lived in a single-family home with a garage, my car would have been concealed inside my home. however, I don't have a house. I live in an apartment building with exterior parking. EVEN IF I had purposefully not renewed my vehicle registration, two points must be made:

1) if i had lived in a home with a private garage, police would be unable to invade my home with reasonable cause just to "see if all cars had current registration stickers"

2) forgetting any hypothetical situations... in my current situation, police had no way of knowing that I was even driving my car on a regular basis. It could have been stored, sitting on my private property, and never driven, for all they know.

Do I have a case? Was it wrong or unlawful for the police to give me this ticket? Do my arguments hold merit?

Thank you.


Asked on 4/28/10, 4:45 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Smith LawSmith

If you show the receipt for the repalcement sticker and the police reprot wherein you reported the theft of the orogianl, the prosecutor is likely to dismiss the ticket. If you filed to report the theft, you are probably more likely to get the ticket amended if you hire an atttorney to represent you.

You also asked about relevance of the location of your vehicle when ticketed. The apartment complex could raise the issue if their vehicle was ticketed, as it is their property. Your use of a non-exclusive parking slot in an apertmetn complex is not the same as parking your car in your private garage.

Good luck

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Answered on 5/07/10, 5:30 am


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