I aint know lawyer but this is how i'd handle it.
It doesn't matter how people (the officer, cps, etc) feel about the law...what matters to the court is what is written.
but the side of the road is no place for a fight with an officer. the court is the official place to argue with an officer who will not listen to reason
don't wait for a court date, get it handled BEFORE it becomes public record.
ask an attorney...
I'd Write up a statement describing the situation for the court, get it notarized (makes it a legal document called an affidavit) and send it to the county prosecutors office where I got the ticket asking for the citation to be dropped as the officer made a mistake in his knowledge of the law.
what you don't want to do is admit any guilt. Your putting in seat belts and the emergency requiring you to pick her up are testament to your going in excess of the law to protect the child. my neighbor has told me if he doesn't get his kids picked up from school it's an abandonment issue.
anyway...
I send the letter to the county courthouse attn, proscecutor.
then a day or two after it should have arrived, I call the proscecutors office to see if they have recieved it and had an opportunity to review it.
this lets you know they got it and lets them know it's important.
they will let you know the best time to follow up with them about it. if not ask them for the best time.
don't miss the appointment to call them back
if it's a traffic ticket I send them a check in the amount of the fine or at least the court costs along with the affidavit declaring not guilty. this lets them know that my contest to the charge is not about the money.
The court doesn't want bad cases to come to trial and they don't want to waste the people's money fixing or covering up officer's mistakes. they want to punish people by the law for making true mistakes.
The best civil analogy of this would be with how a good company looks at it's sales. was it a good clean sale or did the salesman lie, not know the product, or use pressure to sell someone something they really didn't want and they probably won't pay for.
This is just my opinion from my experiences, don't consider it any legal advice. It might give you ideas to run past your attorney.
P.S.
Long time ago I had a freind Rolly who got drunked up and high and broke into a restaurant with some friends and stole their booze.
They knew he was one of them and they had proof.
He left the state to avoid prosecution until he could make enough money to get it smoothed over.
Through his attorney he paid for all the damages without admitting guilt to the charges and the court dropped the charges against him but still prosecuted the others.
Rolly told me (while the charges were pending) there was still a warrant out for him and if he gets arrested he might not be able to get it taken care of so he had to stay incognito.
How?
He made the victim (the restaurant owners) whole
He did not admit guilt or provide any evidence against himself
The only evidence against him at the time because he had not yet been arrested and his dna checked was the testimony of other criminals
He worked through an attorney
The state was willing to drop the charges and close the case without further process
This was my first insight into how the legal system really works. it's not corruption. it's mediation.
there are more ways to make things right than just the court case. Once that court case happens it becomes public record and is on your head forever.
there are other crimes they call "bootless crimes" for which no money will settle or make the victim whole and requires punishment against the body of a person.
