Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I've had first-hand experience with this but in the opposite direction." I think it's the same direction, unless I'm missing something. Magistrates don't have to have a law degree nor pass the Bar. They tend to be very incompetent considering that they are the ones deciding the initial hearing for misdemeanors and felonies (although most of the time they deal with more minor things). I asked a magistrate to dismiss…
> I think it's the same direction, Yeah, it depends on how you look at it. I was thinking about this: > I've had prosecutors and police know that our rights were violated as part of a citation. They did not care. In my case it's, "I had a cop decide not to cite me for violations of the law that I actually committed, only to turn around and railroad me for a less serious violation that he could not possibly have known…
I've only seen it go the one way in my experiences. It just seems so odd to me that a system with such power has such limited controls/protections, and such common mistakes and abuses.