San Jose sued over illegal ticketing - refuses to return money

[Blind_Io]

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_9011295

A driver nailed by a roving radar truck in San Jose is taking his case to court in hopes of getting back the money he spent on speeding tickets and increases in insurance costs for himself and others mailed fines by the city.

The city killed the program that put white radar photo vans on the streets to cut down on speeding after questions were raised in 2006 about the legality of having city engineers - not cops - write citations.

But that was after officials had issued about $5 million worth of tickets through the decade-old program. In 2006 alone, San Jose issued 7,000 tickets using the radar vans that took photos of a speeding car's license plate and driver. Notices of the violations were then sent to the vehicle's registered owner.

Jorge Luis Ramirez's attorney contends that since the tickets were illegal, the city should pay back what it got from the program. Attorney James McManis filed the lawsuit in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Monday.

"They have this illegal program," he said. "They should do the right thing" and pay back those who were charged under the program.

City Attorney Richard Doyle had not seen the lawsuit as of Monday afternoon, but he said the city didn't know the program was illegal when it ran it. As soon as officials learned that the state Legislature was questioning such programs, he said, the city stopped using the radar vans.

"It was a program that everyone had operated in good faith," he said.

Doyle said the courts sanctioned the program because judges and commissioners signed off on the tickets when they were brought to court. People who questioned the legality of the program, he said, could have appealed.

Ramirez was twice ticketed by the radar vans - both times for going less than 10 miles an hour over the speed limit. He paid the tickets but later decided to bring the suit after friends told him it was unusual to be cited for such a small infraction.

"Oh, sorry about that. We didn't actually know that was illegal so we're going to keep all the money. Thank you for brining this to our attention, have a nice day."

No only should they have to pay that money back, I think that because the amount of time that has passed they also owe a considerable amount of interest to those who were ticketed.

[AlexmanDK]

Because one is not familiar with the law does not mean one is excused for breaking it..
If it had been the other way around they would have been all over him.

Stupid stupid stupid

[airmenair]

I hope this goes to the Supreme Court. Maybe they can crack down on this kind of shit.

[fbc]

Nice work San Jose - and of course they'd accept the same argument from someone illegally taking their money 'in good faith'. Asses.

[hansvonaxion]

Same thing happened in Oz, they just changed the law and backdated it to cover the time they were operating illegally. There's no way they'll let him win.

The lawmakers seem to be the only people able to claim ignorance of the law. Ironic, isn't it?

[Blind_Io]

Well, they aren't the lawmakers, it's the city of San Jose in violation of state laws. Two different level of lawmaking, one is city ordinance the other is state law.

[Crazyjeeper]

Fucking California

Good job San Jose, way to fuck up.

[American TG Man]

[Donington]

^could be worse

[P5138]

^Y'know... That first pic is so true.

A friend of mine has started calling my state: "The People's Republic of New Jersey". Luckily, NJ hasn't gotten speed cameras up yet... California is a crazy, wacky, mixed-up place

[Scooby5]

The cops are always the first to tell us "ignorance is not an excuse"

If you get put in jail for doing somehting illegal, then released 10-yrs later because it was a mistake then compensation is often paid these days to the victim of the fucked up system.

I want to be a polititian....... seem to get away with murder.

[BorHor]

My mom actually got one of those tickets...

[tigger]

I'm not really surprised that San Jose has refused to refund the illegal tickets. I can only hope that the judge tears them a new one for claiming ignorance. I know that if any one of us, in any number of countries, went to court and claimed that what we did wasn't wrong because we didn't know it was wrong, the judge would lock us up.

[smib]

Ignorance of the law is never an excuse. Also, when a person is sent to prison for a crime they did not commit and they are lucky enough to be exonerated, the offending state NEVER compensates them fairly.