posted June 3, 2006
Last month I appeared before the Honorable Judge Gary Disheroon in the Red Bank Courtroom and pleaded not guilty for rolling through a red light at one of their photographed intersections. I told him that I did not think I was driving. He ordered me to return to court with more details on the matter.
Turns out I was not driving. I was at work at the time of the incident, with proof. At the second court date, he ruled me “guilty” because the car is registered in my name. I now have a moving vehicle violation on my previously clean record.
It is beyond me how the judge could convict me when I had irrefutable proof that I wasn’t the driver. The ordinance, which should not be able to withstand constitutional scrutiny because it clearly presumes someone is guilty, even says that the registered owner, if they can provide proof that they weren’t driving, shouldn’t be convicted. I guess that innocent until proven guilty maxim doesn’t apply in Red Bank. Too bad because last I looked, Red Bank, Tn., was in the United States.
Then, to add insult to injury, I asked the court for an appeal because I know I wasn’t guilty, the court knows I wasn’t guilty and I think that someone needs to challenge this matter in court. Unfortunately, the clerk refused to give me an appeal bond, and said I would have to call a bondsman before she would give me a bond. I talked to the police chief at the Red Bank Police Department and Court and no one would even allow me to appeal this case. Obviously they know that their ordinance and their enforcement of their ordinance is nothing but a means of raising revenue and it violates every tenet of the Constitution. They must be afraid that if a real court looks at it, their little cash cow will have to go, so they want to make it too difficult to challenge it.
I think that it stinks and that the Red Bank court needs to take another look at the Constitution which says we are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and which gives every citizen the right to a trial by jury. Maybe the citizens of Red Bank need to get a judge who understands the law and the Constitution.
Carol Hile
Chile752@aol.com
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We've been told many times that the red light tickets are not revenue enhancement.
We're also told that it isn't costing anything - the tickets pay for the cameras, etc.
So I guess that means that when the company that installed this equipment is paid in full there will be no reason to collect fines because there will be nothing to pay, and at that point the collected fines really would become revenue enhancement. Right?
Macel Holloway
macelh@comcast.net
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