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Lawmakers and police in California do not have to pay tolls or photo tickets when using secret government license plates
CHP stalking cops and govt crooks without private toll road transponders on public highways
Nearly one million special government license plates have been issued in the state of California giving law enforcement, judges, district attorneys, politicians and their friends immunity from photo ticketing and tolls. According to an expose published yesterday in the Orange County Register newspaper, the Confidential Records Program has handed out a total of 996,716 protected plates to 1800 state and local agencies. These plates keep the identity of the vehicle owner out of the computerized databases that track ordinary motorists. This protection ensures that private red light camera companies and collection agencies for parking tickets toll road violations have no idea where to mail a ticket for nonpayment.
In 1978, the Confidential Records Program was introduced to protect vulnerable police officers who faced criminal threats. It has since become a perk handed out to anyone with the right connections to lawmakers or police. In 2001, for example, museum guards won the right to the plates in their union contract. Anyone driving with such a plate can also expect leniency from traffic police who will, after looking up a special plate, often release a speeder as a "professional courtesy" because having such a plate signals the driver is "connected."
The Register found that on the 91 Express Lane toll road alone, special plate holders have skipped out on $5 million in tolls and penalties because the plateholders know they cannot be caught. The top violators include prison guard Dwight Storay, social worker Lenai Carraway, and Chino Police dispatcher Susie Stephen. All denied the charges or refused comment to the Register.
The California Department of Motor Vehicles has shielded the program from further scrutiny by refusing to provide a more specific list of plateholders under the Freedom of Information laws. It demanded the Register pay $8442 for a simple list of the number of license plates issued to each participating government agency.
State Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Alameda) has introduced legislation to expand the confidential plates to dog catchers, zoo veterinarians, firefighters and code enforcement employees after being asked to do so by the American Federation of County Municipal Employees.
But by the time a California Highway Patrol officer recognized Loretta Duplessis' Camry from a "heavy hitter" list of toll evaders and pulled her over Feb. 27, the couple had racked up $34,805.95 in penalties from OCTA, according to a note the officer wrote on her citation.
The Register used public records laws to obtain OCTA computer logs for the 91 Express Lanes and found 14,535 unpaid trips by motorists with confidential plates in the past five years. A Register analysis showed that was 3,722 separate vehicles, some running the toll road hundreds of times.
That's only about $29,500 in tolls, but under the penalty schedule set by state law, fines for chronic violators can reach $500 per toll, which would total more than $5 million for the confidential plate holders with multiple violations if they ignored warning notices. OCTA officials said that if they had been able to notify these people, they believe most would have paid before penalties ballooned.
Michell and Dwight Storay California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 622
Brenda Orantes San Bernardino Police Department 411
Rudolph and Loretta Duplessis Los Angeles World Airport Police Organization 407
Arnold and Lenai Carraway Orange County Children's Services 239
Rolando Carvajal California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 224
Fred Morris Jr. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 171
Edward Lutz Orange County Sheriff's Department 171
Brian Wright Los Angeles County Probation Office 152
Deborah Rossman Los Angeles Police Department 148
Greg Nowling Fullerton Police Department 142
David and Christine Sandidge California Highway Patrol 128
Ramona Watkins Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department 111
Rory and Sharon Helms Garden Grove Police Department 107
Charles and Suzann Barton Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department 105
Thomas and Melissa Purcell Long Beach Police Department 100
Robert and Linda Adrian Anaheim Police Department 97
Daniel Hackett Corona Police Department 90
Ryan and Glenn Velasco Los Angeles Police Department 88
Mina Cho Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department 87
"Habitual motor vehicle offender" statutes make ordinary traffic tickets felonies with up to 10 years in prison.
Probable cause exists to make felony citizens arrests of all these cops. If they resist citizens arrest, lawful use of deadly force and justifiable homicide is authorized in self defense, as allowed in all citizens arrests.
These secret license plates can used by any defendant to defeat all traffic tickets in California, under the Equal Protection doctrine of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which freed the slaves. When government employees get to do something with immunity from prosecution, then everyone gets to do it. That's THE LAW.
Last edited by dealsgapdragon : 04-09-2008 at 11:20 AM.
I've been saying that for years, but I'm usually rebutted with "cops deserve special treatment (aka professional courtesy) for doing the job they do."
I say, practice what you preach. If someone gets ticketed for something someone else gets away with simply because of who they are or who they know, it's total bullshit.
'Course, that article is CA, I don't think that shit would fly on the east coast.
The "special plates" you speak of are not automatically handed to yo uwhen you get your badge and gun. I'v ebeen a Cali cop for more than 3 years.... I don't have special plates. Probably because I haven't asked for them.
These plates will not get you "out of a ticket" as long as an officer is there to issue it. I have cited several people with these "special plates" for a myriad of violations. Mostly because of their expectation of "I can get away with anything."
I have not been issued a traffic ticket since becoming a peace officer. I've only been stopped twice-- for non-moving violations. But, I did recently have my car towed from an unmarked fire lane (I know, sounds like bullshit. But the curb wasn't painted) on private property.
Anyhow.... I think very few of the special plates should actually be issued. I like that people can find out where my PO Box is.......
In Montgomery County Maryland the cops refuse to pay red light or speed camera tickets they get in their take home cars because the law says the owner of the vehicle is responsible.
So, are they immune if they cause a crash while speeding or running a red light and someone gets hurt or killed?
Never. Cops only have sovereign immunity when their emergency lights and siren are turned on, AND they still drive "reasonable and prudent for conditions". Running redlights at max warp speed is never allowed under any conditions. Govts pay out millions of dollars every year to victims of cop crashes. Cops still must slow down and look both ways before running redlights. They are never allowed to do that off-duty.
I nearly got killed when a cop ran a redlight in downtown Johnson City TN. He T-boned the car in front of me, knocking it 200 feet sideways. Looked like he was doing 100 mph in a 30 mph zone. I didn't stick around to see who was killed.
Last edited by dealsgapdragon : 04-10-2008 at 08:15 PM.
“America is a nation without a distinct criminal class...with the possible exception of Congress."
-Mark Twain
Capital Hill Blue
In early May, Senator Robert C. Byrd, a longtime and powerful Democrat from West Virginia, was following a van too closely on U.S. Route 50 in Fairfax, Virginia, when the van stopped for traffic.
Byrd's 1999 Cadillac slammed into the rear of the van. It took a tow truck more than an hour to pry the vehicles apart.
Byrd's car was not drivable and suffered an estimated $7,000 in damage. The driver of the 1990 Ford Econoline van, Chris Lee, 42, a house painter from Fairfax, said he didn't hear any sounds indicating that Byrd hit the brakes or swerved.
"Just boom," Lee said.
The Fairfax County police officer who investigated the accident had started to write the 81-year-old Senator a traffic ticket when Bryd pulled a copy of the U.S. Constitution out of his pocket and pointed to a section that he said the cop prevented the cop for ticketing him for anything because he, as a member of Congress "shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest" both while attending a session and traveling to or from the Capitol.
Byrd spokeswoman Ann Adler says the Senator, an acknowledged Constitutional scholar, "almost always has one (the Constitution) in his pocket."
Byrd was taken to the nearby Fair Oaks police station where the shift commander put in a quick call to Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney Robert F. Horan. Horan told the cop that if the Senator wanted to claim Congressional immunity for the ticket, the cops would have to honor it. With everything else that had happened in Washington in recent months, a traffic accident probably couldn't be classified as "treason, felony or breach of the peace."
Horan said he was familiar with the immunity clause -- Article 1, Section 6, of the Constitution -- because he had encountered it once before during his 32 years in office. Another member of Congress, also from West Virginia, invoked the clause to escape a speeding ticket 20 years earlier.
The constitutional provision was written in 1781 to protect members of Congress from harassment as they traveled across the country (usually by horseback), and to discourage people from trying to prevent the members from casting unpopular votes.
Constitutional scholars say that while the law has little use in modern times, it is often used by Washington area police as a way to avoid arresting members of Congress.
"It's a common misconception that it (the law) prevents ticketing," says Georgetown University professor Paul Rothstein. "Police departments in this area are frequently under that misapprehension. I think it's a way to do a favor for people of influence and stature, but it does smack of unequal treatment under the law."
And such unequal treatment is often invoked. A study of public records with police departments in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia show 217 members of the House and Senate escaped ticketing and arrest last year for a variety of traffic offenses ranging from speeding to driving while intoxicated.
In the 1998 Congressional session, 84 Representatives and Senators were stopped for drunken driving and released after they claimed Congressional immunity. It should be noted, however, that there is a big difference between being stopped for "suspicion" of DUI and actually being charged with the offense. More than one police officer, however, told Capitol Hill Blue they are not allowed to charge members of Congress.
"I've stopped Senators who were so drunk they couldn't remember their own name," says one Fairfax County police officer. "And I was ordered to let them drive home."
During late-night Congressional sessions, Representatives and Senators often spend time between votes in the private Republican and Democratic clubs or any of a dozen other Capitol Hill watering holes. One Capitol Hill police officer says he has had to jump out of the way more than once to avoid being run down by a drunken member of Congress roaring out of a House office garage.
"But there's not a damn thing I can do about it," he says, "Not if I want to keep my job."
Sgt. Joe Gentile of the D.C. police admits city police do not issue traffic tickets to senators and representatives while Congress is in session. Alexandria and Montgomery County claim members of Congress receive no special treatment for traffic violations, but records show 47 members were released without tickets last year. Arlington and Prince George's county refuse to reveal their policies, but records show members are rountinely released without charge in both counties.
Members of Congress feel no compulsion to obey the law. District of Columbia police issued 2,912 parking tickets to cars owned by members of Congress in 1998. None were paid. The financially strapped District, which actively pursues and "boots" cars belonging to ordinary citizens, does not go after members of Congress.
But Representatives and Senators are not the only privileged class in Washington. More than 20,000 foreign nationals living and working in National Capital area carry cards issued by the U.S. Department of State that grants them "diplomatic immunity" from arrest and prosecution.
For years, members of Congress exempted themselves from many of the laws they passed for the rest of the country. Most bills carried a statement that said, "Exempted from the provisions of this act shall be the legislative and executive branches of the federal government." The exemptions allowed, among other things, members to work employees for long hours without overtime or to discriminate on the basis of sex, political affiliation, age or other reasons.
The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) can shut down a private company for safety violations, but OSHA has no jurisdiction over Congressional buildings and inspectors are not even allowed on Capitol Hill.
Changes made after Republicans took control of Congress in 1995 were supposed to bring Congress into compliance with the laws that governed the rest of the nation, but those who work on the Hill say little has changed.
"Congress is America's last plantation," says former GOP staffer Jonathan Luckstill. "Staffers are still used to run personal errands for members, women staffers are hired on the basis of looks and can be fired on a whim," he says.
"There really isn't much recourse," Luckstill adds.
Sometimes, however, recourse comes through hindsight. A week after he claimed Congressional immunity for his traffic accident, West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd's staff contacted the Fairfax County police and told them to reissue the ticket.
So the cops again called Commonwealth's Attorney Horan.
"I said, if you can waive your rights under the Fifth and Sixth amendments you certainly can waive your rights under Article One, Section Six," Horan said "If the senator wants his day in court, he's entitled to it."
So the Senator got his ticket and appeared in court on July 19, pleading "no contest" on a charge of failing to keep control of his car. The judge levied $30 in court costs, but Bryd was not fined, a sentence that observers said was unusually light for a Fairfax County traffic court that is known to be tough on first-time offenders.
Even when he tried to act like a normal citizen, a member of Congress still got a break.
I'm surprised Senator Larry Craig didn't use that defense for his footsie arrest.
Equal Protection doctrine under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution freed the slaves after the Civil War, and requires citizens to get the same rights and immunities as govt employees. Try that argument in traffic court. I dare ya.
Last edited by dealsgapdragon : 04-12-2008 at 10:06 AM.
1M govt employees avoid $35,000 tickets with secret license plates
WIRED-LEESTA
