Policy forces Trial

January 25, 2017

On January 19, 2017, the firm, through lead counsel, Michael S. Mogenson, went to trial for our client on a speeding charge.  You read that correctly, a speeding charge.

The setting was an area District Court.  Our client, a young college student, simply wanted to divert the citation to keep the ticket off his insurance.  The State initially agreed to divert the charge until it realized that the citation had been written by a “Park Police Officer”.  In Kansas, there are officers who have jurisdiction over parks.  They are authorized to write tickets anywhere in the State, but typically will stay within the park they patrol.  If the exact same citation had been written by a State Trooper, Sheriff or local PD, we would have been allowed to simply divert the citation; however, we were informed that a policy exists within this particular District Attorney’s office that prohibits diverting a ticket written by “Park Police”.  When asked for the basis or reasoning behind the policy, no one could give an explanation for its existence, just that it had been a long standing policy.  With no other option, we set the matter for trial.

Rather than simply show up for trial and hope the officer didn’t appear, Mr. Mogenson filed a pre-trial motion to obtain all the information pertaining to the certification of the Park Police, their training, their use of the radar and the radar itself.  While this is a very rare move in a simple speeding trial, we were given little option.  As a result of the motion, Mr. Mogenson discovered that the radar unit used in this particular case had not been calibrated by the Park Police since January 5, 2009.  The citation was written in May of 2016.  Despite having this information well in advance of the actual trial, the State insisted on going forward.

At trial, Mr. Mogenson further exposed the lack of training of the officer and her knowledge of he equipment she was relying upon to attempt to convict our client.  After close of the State’s evidence, the Court granted Mr. Mogenson’s motion for acquittal.  Due to this victory, our client will not have this citation on his driving record, nor will he have to incur the costs of a diversion.