BOGUS: Lawyer's Records Request Reveals More Tickets for Flashing Lights

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ronald J Riley \(RJR Com\)" <rjr () rjriley com>
Date: July 14, 2009 7:04:06 PM EDT
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: BOGUS: Lawyer's Records Request Reveals More Tickets for  
Flashing Lights

This is pretty outragious.  Montgomery County, Md County should be  
fined at least ten fold, $15,000 or more for their unlawful conduct  
and whomever authorised this should be reprimanded and given time off  
without pay.

They should have to compensate each party who received the bogus  
tickets at five fold the ticket value.

Ronald J Riley

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/07/lawyers-records-request-reveals-more-tickets-for-flashing-lights.html

July 14, 2009

Lawyer's Records Request Reveals More Tickets for Flashing Lights

When D.C. solo practitioner Mark Zaid last month challenged an April  
citation for flashing his headlights to warn fellow drivers of a  
police speed trap, he knew his case was not the first ever. Several  
others were in Maryland state court that morning protesting their  
tickets for "prohibited use of flashing lights."

A judge tossed each ticket because the officer who wrote the citations  
did not show up to court. Montgomery County, Md., police said the  
officer was away on a military assignment. More to the point, the  
police department acknowledged that flashing lights to tip off drivers  
to a speed trap is not illegal. The department vowed to review the  
speed enforcement effort.

In late June, Zaid fired off a letter to the police department seeking  
an historical accounting of how many other drivers have been written  
up for “prohibited use of flashing lights.” He got his answer July 9  
in an e-mail.

Between 2000 and 2008, Montgomery County police wrote 30 tickets to  
motorists for prohibited use of flashing lights, according to police  
department statistics provided to Zaid. This year alone, police  
through April have written 15 tickets to motorists who've been caught  
flashing headlights.

Count Zaid among those 15 drivers handed a $50 citation. Zaid was not  
immediately available for comment this morning. “Our community expects  
that our officers will enforce the law, not create it,” Zaid wrote in  
a four-page letter to the department last month.

Posted by Mike Scarcella on July 14, 2009 at 12:42 PM in Current  
Affairs, D.C. Courts and Government, Other Courts, Politics and  
Government | Permalink

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

TrackBack





-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com