Maryland Town Defends Practice of Forging Signature on Speed Camera Tickets

 

Riverdale Park, Maryland refuses to back down in the face of a class action lawsuit challenging the town to refund citations bearing the forged signature of a police officer. Between February 17, 2010 and April 3, 2010, citations were issued bearing the signature of Police Corporal Clayton Alford, even though Alford was on medical leave on those dates and could not have signed the tickets, as required under state law.

The town's court filing did not deny that the citation signatures were forged. Instead, it denied any member of the public could challenge a citation for such a violation of state law.

http://thenewspaper.com/news/39/3924.asp

This should be worth some bucks

I would think you would just ignore the invalid ticket and let the take you to court, then take it through the system for a win and large cash settlement!

Another Example

Another example of Maryland at it's best!

This is what you get when locales get quite dependent on "the take." Quite sad.

Fred

Maryland .....

...... What's in your wallet?

We say you are guilty, just accept it and move along. sad

Perhaps Riverdale's (I have NO truck with Riverdale Park) next reply will be "at least the tickets weren't signed 'Epstein's mother'..."

Chick Hall's Surf Club weeps.

Of Course

Of course the local judge is going to rule in favor of the town's position. I think one would have to drag this thing through the courts, perhaps even up to the state's Supreme Court, in order to overturn this, but who wants to spend the time and money to do that? The town's attorneys and the judge know that it's unlikely anyone would want to go that far. That's why they'll get away with it.

Good one to watch--

This is going to be a fun one (if you consider such things fun)...

My bet is the judge will go with state law, which requires a valid signature, and toss them.

There's enough heat on this one... If the judge upholds the town's position, which I find to be a real stretch, the next step is the appellate court, which I suspect will come down hard on this one.

I can't see the standing issue trumping outright fraud.

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

State laws VS local laws

It's hard to know what the courts will do about violations of state laws.
I think the state of South Carolina is still fighting the town of Ridgeland about the use of speed cameras in violation of state laws.
State law states a moving violation ticket must be issued by an officer in person not by a picture in the mail.

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things!

I wish I could say this surprises me>>>

but nothing these political cretins do surprises me any more...the town will spend boatloads of the taxpayers' money defending outright fraud because it doesn't come out of the politicians' pockets...change the law and say that when a lawsuit like this fails the local town council members have to reimburse the town for all fees and costs and watch these stupid lawsuits go away.

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"You can't get there from here"

This is just a money maker

The red light companies in MD are in bed with the local jurisdictions.

Enough Corruption

It is not a surprise how these croks prey on the working man. Are Politicians are the true Felons. They are constantly lying and stealing from us. Just another theft they will get away with.

true Felons

Ron1311 wrote:

....Are Politicians are the true Felons. ...

And grammar teachers.

Right said Fred

FZbar wrote:

Another example of Maryland at it's best!

This is what you get when locales get quite dependent on "the take." Quite sad.

Fred

Class action should take care of this one. The class action attorneys stand to make a substantial sum of money from this, so they'll see it through and the town gets to pay big. Can't wait to see how this works out.

This kind of abuse just fuels the fire of public opinion against automated enforcement. Public outcry generally eventually causes changes in laws and policy so even if they win the battle, they'll eventually lose the war.

Way to go Riverdale Park, in putting another nail in the coffin. You can't make this stuff up.

Riverdale

At least The Alamo restaurant is still in business. grin

Someone needs to contact the

Someone needs to contact the ACLU! I don't want my civil right violated by a bogus signature.

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an94

So...

…I'll stay as far as I can away from Riverdale Park. And DC for that matter.

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Tuckahoe Mike - Nuvi 3490LMT, Nuvi 260W, iPhone X, Mazda MX-5 Nav

Old News

This story is more than two years old, and the law suit was dismissed in 2013. Here is a media article outlining the reasons for the dismissal:

http://patch.com/maryland/collegepark/judge-dismisses-5-mill...

Thanks for the update

I thought this sounded familiar