I am a 27 year old married women with two children in college to become a Special Education teacher. To make ends meet I teach Driver's Education about 18-24 hours per week in the summer and when I am in school about 12 hours per week.
June 21 I was heading through downtown Columbus to pick up my last student for the day. I was coming from the Grandview area after meeting my husband for lunch. I made my way to Neil Avenue and then proceeded to Long Street. I went this way knowing that Long Street and 3rd Street met up.
When I got to 3rd. There was two turn lanes so from experience I knew what lane I wanted to turn in so when I made my right hand turn onto 3rd I made it from the lane I knew would get me into the lane I wanted on 3rd. 3rd is a one way road with 5 lanes, the far left lane is closed for constuction, the second left lane is one that eventually turns into the highway, and the middle lane take you through 3rd. Street in German Village (which is where I wanted to go).
I proceeded on my merry way, pasing the Ohio Statehouse, etc. I made it almost to Mound Street when a Columbus Police Officer turned on his flashing lights. I was not speeding, I had not switched lanes, therefore I didn't forget to signal.in fact I got over to give right away to the cop thinking he was going after the person ahead of me that went through a "stale" yellow light that had turned red.
Well low and behold this police officer was pointing at me. I turned my drivers ed. Car off thinking that maybe I had a brake light go out (I had one repalced the day before) and that he was going to let me know. Well no, this cop told me that he "felt" like pulling me over, and that as a traffic cop he was allowed to do so.
Well I was getting slightly ticked, I still complied. I gave him my drivers license and insurance card. Since I was in a work car I couldn't find the registration and at that point I was too flustered to dig for it. Again, since I am a driver's education teacher I was making sure I hadn't done anything wrong otherwise I could lose my instructor permit. The cop again stated "No, I just felt like pulling you over."
Well apparently he had the birthday registration was expired. After checking it does not expire until 11. I then called my employer, who again stated that they don't expire until November. Well, the police officer took my cell phone and talked to my boss. He then came back and said that the VIN number does not match up with the registration of the car.
Well he didn't even verify the VIN on the car until after he had said that (I am no expert, but it seems to make that determination he would have had to checked that before).
Either way, he gave me a $100 ticket for registration violation and told me to sign for it and that by signing it I was doing so on behalf of the company I work for. So I signed it. He then said "By the way that is now your personal responsibility and that $100 ticket is yours". I then told him that isn't was he told me prior and that I was not going to sign for the ticket. He then said that if I treid to do so, he would arrest me right then and there. When we went to leave, he said "I really look forward to seeing you in court".
This whole ordeal has been rather tramatic as I had not been pulled over for any violation since 1997. The cop during this ordeal was threatening and for some reason singled me out. He clearly stated that I was doing nothing wrong and that he just felt like pulling me over. The odd thing is that the company I work for just passed the Ohio Department of Public Safety inspection which if something was in violation with the cars, would have stood out.
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