Legal Question in Traffic Law in New Jersey

Ok, so yesterday my car was parked in the parking lot of my job and i was laying down in the drivers seat on my lunch break as i do every day. A cop approached the window and began asking me a series of questions and asked for my registration and insurance. After provided to him he said he was randomly running license plates in the parking lot and saw my car windows rolled down and decided to run mine. A warrant for parking tickets for $200 appeared. The town out of which the warrant was from stated to ROR me from the scene and gave me a new court date and time in which to show up. The officer still took arrested me, placed handcuffs on me, took mugshots, fingerprints, etc even though at that point no crime was being committed. At no point in time was i read my miranda rights. Once i was done being "processed" he didnt wait for the ROR paperwork to come through he just wrote it on a piece of paper my new court date. Just a huge inconvenience and a waste of 2 and a half hours all while at work. My question is was this correct? Can they just run license plates in parking lots of workplaces? And should i have been read my rights?


Asked on 10/05/13, 4:17 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jonathan Mincis Jonathan J. Mincis, Esq. Law Offices

Yes a police officer can randomly run plates anywhere and if he learned that there was a actice warrant for your arrest he is duty bound to arrest you. The reading you your rights issue is not relevant because you were not charged with anything. Unless you made a confession or denyed a right to speak with your lawyer the whole miranda issue is a non issue. I do not think tthat you have much of a case sorry.

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Answered on 10/05/13, 5:19 pm


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