Ex Harris County (Houston to the rest of you) cop here..
To begin with I am sorry this had to happen to you and your wife. That prick was a state Trooper. Their primary function in Harris County is highway patrol and accident investigation. They are the absolute wrong ones to do anything questionable in front of. I was stopped a couple times by them years ago (all while I was in uniform) and on one occasion I was even issued a citation because I was in my personal vehicle. The badge didn’t matter to this bitch. Although I beat it with a phone call it really sucked. She sucked. No professional courtesy.
Anyway, what you did was not reckless driving. You committed exhibition of acceleration, which really isn't so bad. You weren’t in a residential area right? He probably was more offended that it happened in his presence than anything else. So he had to flex is muscles and make an example of you to show his authority. He could have even been jealous judging by his ice-breaker conversation (that is, if it wasn’t a cheap shot attempt to use your words to trap you).
I don't want to give you the impression that I thought you were wrong. Heck I would have lit them tires up too. But these days we must be mindful of our surroundings at all times before playing. Harris County alone has over 70 different police agencies with all of the 8 precincts, HPD, Metro, SD, all the I.S.Ds, campus polices, Bellaire, Humble, Jersey Village, etc.. Any one of them will have a few tight asses working among them.
Personally I think his reaction was excessive for the matter at hand. Pulling you out, putting you in the back of the patrol car, running you, then giving you a good lecture before sending you and your wife on your way would have been as far as I would go with it IF I were in a bad mood. This should have been especially since you were quiet and didn’t mouth off. What my method of handling this would have achieved was shake you up enough to behave the rest of the week and probably make you like cops a bit more. But I was never in that much of a bad mood so with me (provided you were polite and acknowledged what you did) you would have got off with a warning and a :top:‘thumbs up.’
Like super said hire an attorney for this. If the Trooper classified this as reckless driving then according to the current Texas Penal Code you should emerge smelling like a rose. Where were you taken? Where did the alleged offense occur?
