The author breezed over a potentially important part:

> I had never been to any other kind of court except traffic court (at which, both times, the police officers had flat-out lied).

Reading into that it sounds like they had name, birthday, and the issuing officer saying, "yes, that was her".

If the officers can't reliably witness they shouldn't be a part of the process. There should be enough records taken at the time of the ticket that the officers unreliable testimony shouldn't be needed or used.