It’s common BS SOP in some communities where the LEO’s have nothing better to do but harrass anyone that’s an outsider which they can easily tell by the prefix on the license plate number (or at least that’s the way it used to be). They know outsiders are more likely to just go ahead and pay the ticket rather than driving back to contest it. I understand the reasons why because you have the right to face your accuser, witnesses, blah, blah, blah, etc...but personally I think that whole situation is just bull$hit to make money for the court systems. There are some small cities that depend on that money to pay their bills but have gone WAY past what they need out of greed and it’s just not right.
Get an attorney and tell him the truth. The officer was intimidating you and he made it appear that if you didn’t consent to the search that he was going to keep ishing for a reason to ticket or arrest you. That’s referred to as official oppression. Sometimes its hard to prove in small towns where the whole court system is rigged by locals who’ve lived there all their lives and are guven their positions because of their bloodline. They’ll all work against you. You might file a formal complaint with the local FBI office after you speak to your local congressional representative. They love to get their name in the news anyway they can. The one thing Hutto will not like is publicity about this situation because once someone starts the ball rolling every other victim inluding the locals will come out about it.