I currently reside in Miami-Dade County. During the month of August, I left the state to attend a week long event on the west coast. After m...

Question

I currently reside in Miami-Dade County. During the month of August, I left the state to attend a week long event on the west coast. After my out of state trip but before I returned to Miami, I visited some relatives in Marion County (northern Florida). While I was there, I renewed my license tag and license plate as it was set to expire that month (registration was set to expired at midnight on 8/23/14). When I returned to Miami towards the end of the month, I had health issues, which necessitated me being rushed to a hospital around Labor Day weekend. Due to these circumstances, I forgot to take my car to have the old license plate physically replaced with the new license plate. A few days later, after I was released from the hospital, I remembered that I needed to switch the plates and on 9/06/14, I was "literally" driving to a place to handle switching the tag, when a police officer follows me and pulls me over. When she does stop me (for no apparent reason) she only asks me for my driver's license, registration and proof of insurance. I gave her all the documents immediately, accept for the proof of insurance, which I had to search through my glove compartment to find. While I was searching, she walked back to her car. Three minutes later I find the my insurance card and hold it and my current license plate outside the driver's side window. The officer ignored me and returns to my car five minutes later. Then she informs me that "it's too late, I already wrote you up." I tried to explain to her what happened and she just told me "That's not my concern... You can explain it to the judge." As a consequence, I was given a citation for driving with no proof of insurance when I had the proof when I was stopped and I was charged with violating FL. Stat. 320.261 which states that it is a "misdemeanor in the 2nd degree" to "knowingly attach" to any motor vehicle a license plate or validation sticker that was not issued and assigned or lawfully transferred to such vehicle. I'm currently financially unable to pay a fine or for a lawyer to represent me. I have never be cited for this offense before and I do not want to have a criminal record because of this nonsense. Also, I can not plead guilty because I didn't "knowingly" attach an unassigned license plate, the plate, which was my old tag, had recently expired before I could switch it out and I had the correct take on my person at the time I was stopped and I was in the process of removing the tags. So my question to you is should I plea "nolo contendre" or "not guilty" regarding the not assigned tag charge, and if I plea nolo contendre and ask for "adjudication to be withheld" would that prevent a criminal record and would it be the same as claiming that I'm guilty? My final question, can an officer arbitrarily pull you over without probable cause? I ask because this officer was following me for a while before I was stopped, even though I was driving within the speed limit. Thank you. Sorry for writing a book.

Answer

No attorney can give advice on how you should plea to a criminal charge such as this on an open forum. You need to meet with an attorney in your area to see what would be best. It may be possible to get the charged dismissed or amended to a non-criminal offense for example. Further, your attorney can look at things like the stop to see if there was something improper there.