It's just not worth the hassle. The cop probably passed two meth houses on his way to your neighborhood. Unfortunately you happened to be the low-hanging fruit that makes the cop feel good about "serving the public."
By the time you pay a lawyer for his counsel - you'd be better off perhaps offering to simply pay the littering fine in lieu of dropping the careless driving charge. Tell the judge the situation at your court hearing. You have no criminal record, nothing that would warrant them pushing the issue. You pay the $50 fine (or whatever) and go on your way.
And if you go into the hearing with a good heart, explain why you felt compelled to do what you did to the magistrate judge - most likely this all gets forgotten. Worse case you end up with a small fine, no ding on your driving record.
It's just not worth the hassle, no matter how much both you and I (and others) feel like you weren't in the wrong here.
It's not worth a thousand bucks in lawyers fees to get this resolved imo.
But again, that's jmo.