Ticket: Registration Out, in TX
| Perspective | Where | Encounter Initiated By | Reason/Facts | Nature/Cause of Accusation | Court |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defendant | rural Texas | County Sheriff Deputy | ran plates, found registration expired | State: Criminal: TTC §504 (in Subtitle A) | Texas Justice Court, aka Justice of the Peace, or "JP" Court |
Defects in Charging Instrument
Soon, there would be someone acting like this a court case was commenced by law enforcement, and you're the defendant.
There may very well be a variety of defects on the citation, such as your name being misspelled, or the street intersection being slightly inaccurate. For the moment, suspend all those kinds of concerns, and let's focus on the bigger issues.
Threshold Issues
One threshold issue is probable cause.
Another threshold issue is jurisdiction.
Probable Cause
This is important because if you were stopped or searched or both, absent probable cause, then everything he got from his unlawful fishing expedition is inadmissible evidence, because it's "fruit of the poisoned tree".
The officer indicated that his reason for pulling you over is because he did some research into records about you, and concluded that your registration was expired.
He didn't say there's a defective equipment concern because your muffler is scraping the ground.
He didn't say you were speeding or driving recklessly or any kind of "moving" violation.
He merely suspected a paperwork problem.
Suspicion of a paperwork problem is not an articulable fact in support of probable cause to initiate an encounter. Actually, suspicion is not a fact at all. Even if he had some way to know first-hand that your registration was expired, that still would not support probable cause to initiate an encounter. Did you notice why not? It's because he is not a state trooper; he's a sheriff deputy. As such, his enforcement authority is limited (by TTC §543.001) to only the offenses in subtitle C, whereas the expired registration offense is way back in subtitle A. He has no business initiating an encounter based on a registration offense... let alone his factless suspicion about a registration offense.
For this reason, we can safely conclude that he had no probable cause; in other words, he was unable to reach the lawful threshold of having articulable facts in support of probable cause to initiate an encounter.
See how many crimes you can identify, that this officer committed, in this hypothetical scenario.
See what the most severe crime is.
Jurisdiction
This threshold issue has not exactly come into focus yet. By experience, we know it will, so it's worth considering.
A court has latent jurisdiction over a certain type of matter. For example, a JP court has been given authority, by clear legislative intent, to adjudicate matters that are criminal in nature and involve a cause of action that's a misdemeanor punishable by fine only (no jail). In Texas, that's called a "class C" misdemeanor. But that doesn't mean such cases could magically commence themselves!
A court cannot possibly acquire jurisdiction (or said another way, have its latent jurisdiction activated) until someone with standing goes to the court and files some papers called "primary pleadings". In most states, that means either a document called "an indictment" or a document called "an information".
Charging Instrument, Accusatory Document
Usually, if one were to highlight the nonexistence of a case, based on the nonexistence of any primary pleadings having been filed, a city attorney would argue that the citation is the charging instrument.