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Today’s problem
Steve Hess, a former Prairie Village resident now living in New York, has a question about how speeding tickets are handled in Mission.
He thinks the city’s practice of doubling the fine in exchange for keeping the ticket off a person’s driving record is “outrageous” and rewards the rich and punishes the poor.
Hess says that on a recent visit he received a ticket accusing him of driving 81 mph in a 55 mph zone. After returning to New York he called the clerk in Mission to see how he could dispose of the ticket without returning to Kansas.
He says the clerk offered two alternatives: Plead guilty and pay a $220 fine and receive points against his driver’s license, or pay $440 and get no points — which means his insurance company wouldn’t find out and possibly boost his premiums.
Hess says he is familiar with programs in other jurisdictions where the speeder has to take a class in exchange for keeping a clean driving record, but not an offer to raise the fine in exchange for the reduction.
“There is a due process when you have to take a class to show you know your ways are evil, but it never benefits the courts or the town (financially),” he says. “Doubling the money doesn’t solve the problem of speeding.”
The answer
Mission officials say their way of reducing the charges does help the court handle its case load and, they claim, it’s a common practice in other municipal courts on both sides of the state line.
“It reduces docket size and makes for a more efficient handling of the court cases,” said Mission Police Maj. Mark Sullivan.
Sullivan said he could not comment on your individual case, but he did say drivers who receive routine traffic tickets in Mission generally have three choices:
•Plead not guilty and request a trial.
•Plead guilty and pay the standard fine.
•Attempt to plea bargain with the prosecutor.
Sullivan says one possibility for resolving a speeding ticket may be where the prosecutor agrees to amend the citation to a nonmoving violation and the fine is renegotiated, usually to double the original scheduled amount. This is discretionary, and it may not be allowed under certain circumstances.
Sullivan says that many municipal courts allow continuances for people who cannot afford to pay their fines to give them more time to raise the money.
The Watchdog says an officer stopped him once, informing him that the dog’s wife had fallen out of the car a few blocks back. The dog told the officer he was relieved. The dog thought he’d gone deaf.
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