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My most frustrating stop was in 1989, in Stanislaus County, Northern California. I was on I-5 South, returning from a 3-day Bob Bondurant school, which then was at Sears Point (now Sonoma raceway). I was going about 5 over, which was below the speed of traffic, and never in my life has 5 over been enforced by CHP or even local PD in California. Right after I was passed by two sedans going considerably faster than me, I saw a CHP Mustang turning from the median into the northbound lanes. I lifted and proceeded at the speed limit. The two sedans that passed me didn't slow down. As soon as the Mustang came along side me going in the opposite direction, he turned into the median for a U-turn, went to the southbound lanes, and pulled me right over. I was really surprised.
My car was a bright red hatchback with factory wings on it, lowered with wide wheels. The car probably stood out in that rural area, and being on the I-5 he could guess I lived far away. When the officer came up to my window, he said, "boy, son, looked like you were doing at least 80 back there." He asked for my license, I protested that I wasn't speeding and wasn't going anywhere close to 80. He held up my license, looked at its San Diego address (350 miles to the south), smiled at me and said sarcastically, "why don't you come up here and tell it to the judge?" He wrote me up for 80 mph, knowing I wouldn't want to make a 700 mile round trip to fight a ticket. It was totally corrupt, and he knew it. I should have filed a complaint with the CHP, but was young and not confident enough to do that. I paid the ticket and did traffic school to keep it off my record.
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