IP: Judge dismisses 290 red light camera tickets in San Diego

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>To: politech@politechbot.com
>From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
>
>***********
>
>SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO
>In re: Red Light Camera Cases   CASE NO. 579275D
>ORDER EXCLUDING EVIDENCE
>
>Plaintiff, The People of the State of Califomia, V.John Allen, et al., 
>Defendants.
>
>The prosecution's arguments have not persuaded the Court to change its 
>ruling. The prosecution relies on People v. Adams (1976)59 Cal.App.3d 559 
>and the cases following it for the proposition that failure to follow the 
>statute only goes to the weight of the evidence and not to its 
>inadmissibility. As pointed out in People v. Williams (2001) 89 
>Cal.App.4th 85 at 100,
>
>Adams and its progeny were crafted to address anomalies or occasional 
>errors and innocent lapses in law enforcement. They were not meant to 
>provide a means for peace officers and their agencies to ignore clear, 
>easy-to-apply statutory law and administrative rules, for any reason, 
>including budget or personnel constraints.
>
>In this case, the failure of the city to operate the system as required by 
>the legislature, combined with the contingent fee paid to Lockheed Martin 
>goes far beyond Adams or any of the cases which follow Adams. The Court 
>sees no difference between a contingent fee to a private corporation and a 
>contingent fee paid to an individual.
>
>Therefore, the Court's ruling will stand. The evidence from the red light 
>cameras will not be admitted.
>
>IT IS SO ORDERED.
>DATED; September 4, 2001
>Ronald L. Styn
>Judge of the Superior Court
>
>***********
>
>From: "Jack Dean" <JackDean@WebCommanders.com>
>To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan@well.com>
>Subject: Judge dismisses 290 red-light camera tickets
>Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 18:49:37 -0700
>
>http://www.uniontrib.com/news/metro/20010904-1522-crime-camera.html
>
>San Diego Union-Tribune
>September 4, 2001
>
>Judge dismisses 290 red-light camera tickets
>
>By Len Novarro
>REUTERS
>
>SAN DIEGO - A San Diego judge Tuesday threw out 290 traffic tickets issued
>to motorists by the city's controversial red light camera system, placing
>the privately operated program in jeopardy along with its millions of
>dollars in revenue.
>
>San Diego Superior Court Judge Ronald Styn, ruling in a case that has been
>closely watched on both sides of a growing debate over the new technology,
>said that a contingency fee paid to the private operator of the city's
>system, Lockheed Martin IMS, made the evidence unreliable.
>
>"The evidence from the red light cameras will not be admitted," Judge Ronald
>Styn said in reaffirming his Aug. 15 opinion in a class-action lawsuit
>against Lockheed Martin. Styn's ruling came after he heard arguments from
>attorneys representing the motorists and by Deputy City Attorney Steven
>Hansen, who said he was considering an appeal.
>
>"I'm pretty adamant," Hansen said. "The judge's decision was incorrect. The
>judge said that there was no problem with the camera's system. The only
>problem ... was that a private company was operating it."
>
>[...]
>
>***********
>
>From: "Jack Dean" <JackDean@WebCommanders.com>
>To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan@well.com>
>Subject: San Diego's red-light cameras ruled illegal
>Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 17:38:47 -0700
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: text/plain;
>         charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>X-Priority: 3
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>
>http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/flash_page/flashfaxes/current.shtml
>
>TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 4TH, 2001
>NEWSRADIO AM 600 KOGO (3P-6P) SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA HOME OF THE RADIO MAYOR
>OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
>
>ROGER'S RED LIGHT CAMERA LAWYERS.WIN!!
>(judge rules Scamera citations illegal..cannot be evidence)
>ROGER so hyped when he hears the ruling this morning that he's already
>planning a party. Likely Thursday at ROGER'S On Fifth. Judge Ron Styn rules
>to reaffirm his previous decision that the conspiracy between the city of
>San Diego and Lockheed Martin is illegal, thus any evidence produced by the
>illegal scheme cannot be submitted in court against innocent
>drivers/extortion victims.
>
>IMMEDIATE RESULT
>is that the 290 (or is it 400) cases involved in this specific matter are
>dismissed. The secondary result is that we'll want ALL OTHER extortion cases
>dismissed.even if folks paid up without a trial. We're talking every single
>dime refunded to every single victim nabbed by a San Diego Scamera. Then we'
>re on to getting driving records returned to clean status..no points,
>marks..REMOVED. And then we want insurance companies to rebate any premium
>hikes associated with an illegal Scamera conviction. And if folks were
>forced to go to a traffic school.we want the city and/or Lockheed to rebate
>that fee as well. How all this is gonna happen will be fodder for discussion
>on ROGER'S radio show in the days to come.
>
>ANOTHER RESULT OF JUDGES RULING
>today is that communities all over America will have to re-look at their in
>progress or proposed Scamera projects. We're not legal but we guess that
>this ruling has no validity in a D.C. or Carolina court, but any judge worth
>salt has to consider San Diego as the cesspool of this criminal conspiracy
>and measure cases against our now proclaimed and validated miscarriage of
>justice.
>
>ROGER VOWED
>in May of 2000 that he'd shut down the Scameras in San Diego. Not only has
>that happened, but we're well on our way to ensuring that they never return
>as entrapment, revenue scheming, extortion, entrapment gadgets.
>
>THIS VICTORY IS SWEET
>.listen up on the radio today as ROGER thanks those who made it happen.but
>know beforehand that he is likely to give supreme credit to all those
>thousands of men and women who said "hell No," and took their cases to
>court. Took time from work, were abused too often by the court system,
>demanded justice and many who paid more than the price of the Scamera ticket
>to fight against the City/Lockheed conspiracy. This morning's verdict
>belongs not only to ROGER'S Red Light Lawyers, but also to the 290 (or is it
>400) victims who stood up, demonstrated backbone and raised their swords
>against the windmill. We hope they'll join us on Thursday to rejoice!!
>
>AND BEAR IN MIND
>that this battle resumes on several fronts.Our class action lawsuit a work
>in progress. The newly filed federal RICO suit of last Thursday is just
>aborning. We'll need to keep at least one good eye on that "Independent"
>city audit of the entire Scamera fiasco. Steve Peace legislation in
>Sacramento will need our support (and beefing up.Dems are watering down
>Senator Peace's bill and it may not make it to full floor votes this
>session).Oh, and note please from yesterdays post on ROGER'S News, that the
>city of Oxnard, (home to the bogus and too much quoted Red Light Scameras
>are for safety insurance study) is now re-thinking its Scamera program,
>based on the illegal criminal conspiracy perpetrated in San Diego. That
>should stop Chief David and others from spouting Oxnard Report nonsense.
>(wonder if we can use David's handcuffs on him? Do Chiefs have
>handcuffs?..humm)
>
>***********
>
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
>You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
>Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
>To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
>This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------
>



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/