I was typing a reply to OP yesterday about this time with no replies posted yet when my Ipad's battery ran out pluged it in and the darn thing won't turn on! just the apple sign appears, so had to yank out my old Laptop, if anybody knows what's going on with the ipad I'd appreciate a pm.
anyhow back to OP:
If you didn't go to court, ask for an extention, or pay the fine within the alloted time the ticket has turned to an arrest warrant, it does even for for equipment citations. Now that's double trouble as the judges are strict for no shows, it's kinda like you are the enemy of humanity in their eyes if you don't show up by your deadline! Also If I recall correctly CA has a reciprosity agreement with many other states which means you could be pulled over and arrested over there too (am pretty sure that's the way it was).
Of all the tickets I got the only one dismissed by the judge was because the Cop had not written something on the ticket and the court clerk wrote it in and that made the judge fume and dismiss it. Besides that the only other times I was lucky was if the Officer didn't show up.
Once I was pulled over by a couple of CHP officers in one car who were trailing the car behind me on a single lane road, after pulling him over they pulled me over too and ticketed both of us for speeding, I was pissed because I wan't speeding and there was no way for them to see my actual speed as The car behind me blocked their view. each of the two cops, one male and one female, ticketed each one of us separately. So I saw the other driver at the local market a few days later and told him about my objections, it turned out that he was an attorney and he told me there would be no point in contesting the case as Cops always win and he'd just pay the fine.
Well I went to court and only the male officer showed up as he was the one who ticketed me, in cross examination when I brought up my points and the fact that he and his female companion couldn't have observed my actual speed he denied that he was with a female officer! I was shocked and asked him again and he said there was no female officer with him and he was alone, so I asked the judge ( who wasn't a judge but a temp replacement) if I could have sometime to locate the other driver and bring him as a witness to which the temp judge and the city attorney who had questioned me and a third guy sitting next to him started laughing and joking and then he said he'd waive my fine but not the citation, so I ended up not paying for the ticket for whatever hanky panky those officers were doing, but it went on my record.
Lastly, I remmember seeing an attorney on TV News in LA a few years back who's only job was traffic citations with a huge record of wining, something like 80 or 90% win record, if I recall he'd travel out'a LA too and just charge traveltime, you may wanna do a google search and see if you can find him and take care of that warrant ASAP.
