Syag,
You’ve never pleased to a lesser charge in traffic court? That is standard practice outside of NYC. The cops issue trumped up tickets, wildly inflating charges, ncreasing the reported speed and giving multiple tickets for the same infraction using different code section s and then they offer a plea.
Happens every single day. It is a revenue source for the towns that they don’t have to share with the state.
These are only simple cases, but the same happens with all charges.