I never thought I'd say anything like this. It is the law of that state
and you broke it......Pay the fine.
The cop might be a rookie but you going to court and lying about what
you told him is only going to make matters worse!
Saying your scanner can't pick up police frequencies after showing the
cop that it will, not a smart move.
Think about this, if you did beat the charge by lying, would that cop
not dislike you for making him look like a liar, would he not pull you
over everytime he sees your vehicle and maybe write bogus tickets to you?
Here's the best way to beat that ticket, just don't pay it and never
goto Minnesota again!

Scanner Guy wrote:
Hi Guys,

I am posting here as I need some ideas in regards to fighting a mobile
scanner charge I received in Minnesota. Any insight, ideas, prior
cases, or anything else you think will help, will be VERY much
appreciated.

Here is a little background. I live on the Wisconsin Minnesota border
and drive a Hummer H1 as my daily driver. I also use it for search and
rescue during blizzards, downpours etc... Because of this I do have a
uniden scanner installed. Of course it is perfectly legal to have in
Wisconsin. Anyway I crossed the border to run some errands for my
mother in-law who is in an assisted living home in Minnesota. I got
pulled over in Minnesota for an improper lane change. Long story short,
I got issued a ticket (misdemeanor)for having a scanner in my Hummer.
So now I am going through the law word by word finding anyway possible
to fight it. The law is so vague, that you can not even bring a
handheld scanner to a Nascar race.

Here is a link to the law:

http://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/stats/299C/37.html

Here is the kicker. I got this one week before I got my amateur radio
license. Also since I did not know it was illegal in MN, I actually
admitted I could pick up his signal and showed him. So one would think
I am screwed, but I think if I put forth a strong case with my lawyerl,
there is a good chance I can get out of it. The cop made a note of my
model of scanner (Uniden) but did not make note of the antenna. So my
first thought for my defense was that I was mistaken in my admission. I
was thinking maybe changing antennas and show in court that the antenna
was not capable of receiving the police frequencies.

Another idea, was maybe finding some sort of problem with the PD's FCC
license (highly unlikely) and therefor they would not be authorized to
transmit on their frequencies.

Anyway. Anyone have any other ideas? I can not find any case law on
other cases that were successfully defeated.

Thanks guys, your help is really appreciated.

BTW, of couses the cop was a rookie.