On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 06:55:38 -0500, Mark wrote:

}Once again, the fact that it was completely defective will have nothing to do
}with it.

True, if the detector normally works OK and one time gave a false alarm
then you can make the argument under "good faith" that you thought it was
working correctly (since it had in the past). On the flip side, if the
detector goes off several times a day/week with false positives, then that
is an entirely different set of circumstances. That is reality.

BTW, I am NOT a lawyer (but did stay in a Holiday Inn G). However, I have
been a policeman for 22+ years now and have some experience with good faith
defenses (i.e. reasonable belief). I cannot speak for other states though
so we may both be right...

Going full circle to the original post, purposely triggering an alarm on
the hope of making some money later is just as bad as making an arrest
based on only an alarm going off...


Later,
Dave