A motorist is using federal anti-racketeering statutes to go after the red light camera and speed camera program in Tempe, Arizona. Dan Gutenkauf filed his complaint last week in the US District Court for the District of Arizona and happened to land the same judge, Frederick J Martone, who presided over the recent American Traffic Solutions (ATS) vs. Redflex case which is currently under appeal. The suit names Redflex employees, police officials, politicians and judges as defendants.
“I feel this lawsuit is very comprehensive and I have spent a lot of time over the last two years doing the legal research, gathering evidence and drafting the complaint,” Gutenkauf told TheNewspaper. “And I have my appeal victory from the lower court propelling me into federal court.”
In his filing, Gutenkauf carefully laid out the circumstances of his February 17, 2009 trial in Tempe Municipal Court before Judge Mary Jo Barsetti. Traffic aide Bianca Gallego and Tempe Police Officer Aaron Colombe both testified that they had no way to confirm whether Dan Gutenkauf or his identical twin brother, Dennis, had been behind the wheel, based on the photographic evidence and that no attempt at positive identification was made before the ticket was issued. Both Gutenkauf brothers are listed on an insurance policy for the van that was photographed.
Barsetti found him guilty over numerous objections Gutenkauf made about the admissibility of the evidence provided by Redflex. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Eartha K. Washington overturned the ruling on appeal, and Gutenkauf received a refund check in December 2009 for the $197 fine, but Gutenkauf wanted to recover the additional $699 he spent in filing the appeal. Tempe agreed to pay back the $699, but only if Gutenkauf signed a contract containing language preventing him from filing suit against Redflex. Gutenkauf refused, knowing the company’s manuals direct employees to “issue citation” based solely on a match between the sex of the driver in the photograph and the vehicle registration records, not on the positive identification required by Arizona statute.
“Matthew Degraw knew that the photo speed enforcement citations sent to Daniel Gutenkauf through the mail by Redflex’s back office citation program contained knowingly false representations, creating the false impression that the actual driver had been identified, in a fraudulent scheme and artifice for the purpose of obtaining money from him by false pretenses,” Gutenkauf’s filing stated.
Gutenkauf argues that the police officer who certified the citation violated the same law requiring positive identification before approving the ticket. This violation, combined with his inability to cross-examine the witnesses against him represented a deprivation of his constitutional right to due process, he argued. Tempe officials have not yet filed a response.
[Courtesy:Thenewspaper.com]
Good. I think we have seen enough anedotal evidence presented here on TTAC of the unholy nexus of traffic camera functions and the branches of government.
God bless this guy for bringing this suit.
I’m not even a particularly big fan of “small government”, and am also not a guy that has a problem with paying taxes, I’m just a fan of good and honest government. Until goverments everywhere get away from back-door revenue enhancements, the cycle of increasing spending, without accountability will continue.
Fines for traffic enforcement should be revenue-neutral and used only for things related to traffic-safety improvement.
If you are a fan of honest government, the first thing to go would be the Institute of Transportation Engineer’s “Kell and Fullerton” equation used to set the amber light times across the U.S. It’s fatally flawed and a lie.
Camera companies and municipalities love it because of the cash it generates. Insurance companies love it because it generates points used to jack up rates. NHTSA and the IIHS are in complete and total denial the cameras, once holding great promise of improving intersection safety, have been universally hijacked for revenue. The ITE doesn’t seem to care the formula is wholly dishonest and unsafe.
Only when judges are educated to appreciate the depth of the flaws in the ITE formula and begin throwing out all tickets based on it will there be a change to more safe and sane, efficient, and driver-friendly green and amber light times.
You’d think fans of big govt would be smart enough to not antagonize the citizenry with these automated revenue getters which rightly create a distrust of devious and excessive tax collection.
But no, the cyclops is often dumb as well as greedy. And so they inadvertently make more people aware of the need for keeping limits on how the govt can go about controlling and collecting.
Slightly off-topic personal question.
A few days ago, I received a photo speeding ticket via mail (my first speeding ticket in 20 years of driving, hooray!) in DC. $125 going 11 over.
It was a night shot, and there are other vehicles receding with me in the photo.
Now, I live several hundred miles away and work for a living, so contesting this in person is a non-starter.
I noticed that they offered the chance to mail-in request for adjudication.
Has anyone with DC-area speeding camera tickets appealed via mailing-in requests for adjudication? Are there any additional penalties or ramifications pursuing this via mail?
Don’t want this abrogation of my 6th amendment to stand, but I don’t want to pile any additional fees on the $125 I supposedly owe the deadbeats in DC.
Many thanks.
Cackalacka,
Having lived in DC most of my life, until recently, I understand that DC usually throws out tickets where more than one car is seen in the photos, as it makes it difficult to determine who is at fault.
However, I also know that DC recently started upping enforcement (i.e. writing tickets for petty bullshit) in a “crackdown” on law breakers.
Case in point, a DC cop wrote my wife a ticket saying that she did not look both ways before turning onto a road from a side road. This was during the “crackdown.” The cop was vague and combative about the ticket he was writing. Of course this “crackdown” was really a revenue campaign.
The fact that you are receiving a ticket even though other cars are present shows me that DC has changed its standards in an effort to collect more revenue.
I would string it out, though. Make DC pay more in labor than the ticket is worth. Make the argument through the mail that it cannot be determined who is at fault.
FYI, my only mail-in contest of a ticket in DC was a parking ticket, where I took photos of the broken parking meter including the stuck coin in the slot opening. I got off, but this was pre-shitty-economy.
Thanks Dog,
I’m inclined to do just that.
Win or lose, at least I would be comforted in not rolling over and dying for this horse$hit.
I am just reluctant to jump on this until I do all my homework. The only thing weaker than a dubious $125 ticket, is one that gets compounded with additional adjudicating/processing fees.
The letter I received was not too helpful in identifying what the processing implications may be. Curiously, neither was DCs traffic website.
Ironically, the #1 Google return for DC camera speeding tickets is our favorite enthusiast website. (https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/dc-camera-ticket-overturned-over-accuracy-doubts/)
On that post, if one were to swap the Audi for my GTI, pulled the car in front closer, and made the daytime night, this would be a dead-ringer for my photo ‘ticket.’
Thanks to the hosts of TTAC as well as the posters for the information. I’ll let the group know of the outcome.
Hey cackalacka,
I just went back to that old TTAC post about the DC camera ticket. I see there are some later comments indicating that someone else got off because of other vehicles being in the picture. The fact that you state that the car in your photo was CLOSER to you than the one in the old post would give you an even clearer and more solid case for possible radar confusion. Give the city hell!
States and cities and other municipalities are so desperate for money that they’ll bypass all common sense and laws to bring in revenue with these speed and red light cameras.
Good luck to this guy and his suit. I despise these parasites, whether gubmint or corporate.
I hope he succeeds. As for the DC ticket you might find useful advice from the forums at one of the speedtrap or radar testing sites useful. I don’t know if referencing other sites specifically is permitted as I am new here.
Whenever devices like these are invented, it’s always for the sake of safety or something like that. It’s all very idealistic in the beginning, then reality rears its ugly head and it is stripped of its ideals to expose what it becomes, even if it wasn’t the original intent.
Everyone, it seems, is trying to pick each others’ pockets and find that elusive pot of gold at rainbow’s end – but it’s not there. It won’t be, never has, never will.
Since driving has become a necessity and not an option for too many folks, traffic regulation and law enforcement and its possible penalties have local cash-strapped/bankrupt governments licking their chops at the prospect of creating a windfall of additional revenue at their citizen’s expense, deserved or not.
Guess what? People fight back. For every action there is a reaction, and the consequences may be embarrasing. Really, does anybody truly win?