Ohio Appeals Court: No Speeding Tickets for Fast Sounding Cars

steve

With "LOD" Since 1997
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2986.asp


Ohio Appeals Court: No Speeding Tickets for Fast Sounding Cars
Ohio Court of Appeals rules that a police officer cannot issue a speeding ticket because a car sounds fast.

The Ohio Court of Appeals on Monday ruled that a motorist cannot be convicted of speeding based solely on how fast his car may have sounded. On October 18, 2007, Patrolman Ken Roth ticketed Daniel Freitag in the village of West Salem as Freitag was driving with his wife Jane on US Route 42. Roth claimed his radar unit clocked Freitag at 42 MPH in a 35 zone. Roth also claimed he could hear Freitag's 2006 Lincoln Navigator speeding.
"As it approached I could hear the vehicle on the roadway which based on my training and experience it is consistent with a vehicle that was in excess of the posted speed limit," Roth testified.

A trial court judge on November 16, 2007 accepted this testimony and found Freitag guilty. Freitag challenged this decision before the Ohio Court of Appeals on the grounds that the radar evidence was not admissible. The trial court claimed it had taken judicial notice of the "Genesis Radar" that Roth used, but the state failed to specify which particular radar model was used. Freitag won on the point that the radar evidence was improperly admitted, but he lost as the court sent the case back to the trial judge to rule whether the officer's estimate of Freitag's speed based on the Navigator's sound was credible. The trial court once again supported the officer and ruled that Freitag was guilty.

Freitag, however, did not give up. He appealed a second time, insisting that the officer's testimony that he could estimate a vehicle's speed by its sound or by watching a car's headlights through the patrol car's rear-view mirror was absurd. This time, the appeals court agreed.

"In weighing the evidence and all reasonable inferences and considering the credibility of the witnesses, we conclude that this presents the exceptional case, where the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Freitag," Judge Donna J. Carr wrote for the court. "The weight of the evidence does not support the conclusion that Freitag was exceeding the posted speed limit, specifically because Patrolman Roth's testimony that he audibly and visibly determined that Freitag was speeding is not credible... It is simply incredible, in the absence of reliable scientific, technical, or other specialized information, to believe that one could hear an unidentified vehicle 'speeding' without being able to determine the actual speed of the vehicle."

Calling the trial judge's ruling a "manifest miscarriage of justice," the court reversed Freitag's conviction.

A copy of the final appeals court decision is available in a 50k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Ohio v. Freitag (Court of Appeals of Ohio, Ninth District, 12/7/2009)
 
Wow . . . I never heard of such a silly thing . . . being ticketed for how fast your car sounds?? Glad the little guy won for a change!
 
ya but it prolly cost the little guy tens of thousands in lawyers costs with all the appeals and everything. the average person would be too broke to fight and be screwed :(
 
But what i want to know is when did a Lincoln Navigator ever sound fast, unmodded from the factory anyway lol
 
Same reason I got stopped in Anacortes, WASH in the 60's. Had a '66 Dodge with single exhaust, 273 engine, STOCK. The WHOOSH from the single pipe alerted the cop....back then, a cop gave you a ticket, you paid. Waste of time to go to court.
 
I got this ticket, the judge introduces the cop in court.

Judge: "Officer XXX, you are a certified Radar officer, that means you can tell the speed of the car with the naked eye as well as your radar, is that correct?"
Officer: "Yes, it is"

What a crock of BS, but I got a reduced violation with a higher fine. Typical in the courts here. Pay more to get a different charge.

I was not speeding, I was going the speed limit, I know where these cops sit, they have sat there for 20 years of my life, I slowed down before I got there because I knew they would be there.

Cops are all Dually Authorized Revenue Seeking Agents of Substandard Municipalities.

In Laymens terms....PIGS!

True Story
 
Last edited:
I got this ticket, the judge introduces the cop in court.

Judge: "Officer XXX, you are a certified Radar officer, that means you can tell the speed of the car with the naked eye as well as your radar, is that correct?"
Officer: "Yes, it is"

What a crock of BS, but I got a reduced violation with a higher fine. Typical in the courts here. Pay more to get a different charge.

I was not speeding, I was going the speed limit, I know where these cops sit, they have sat there for 20 years of my life, I slowed down before I got there because I knew they would be there.

Cops are all Dually Authorized Revenue Seeking Agents of Substandard Municipalities.

In Laymens terms....PIGS!

True Story

I hear you.

My wife just got a ticket yesterday for no front license plate...on our H2! HELLO!!! It's an off-road vehicle! Front license plates would not last a day on the trail. I guess the officer missed the, ohhh about 300 lbs. of armor on the front to protect the vehicle. Funny thing is, it got ticketed when it was parked outside a Walmart...found it on the windshield. Some idiot cop with nothing better to do was trolling a parking lot looking for missing front license plates.

Me-thinks we now have too many cops wasting my taxpayer dollars...
 
Me-thinks we now have too many cops wasting my taxpayer dollars...

No, I think it's too many states and counties out of money. I March I got a speeding ticket for doing 68mph on a 65mph highway. He told me I was the fastest car out there, AT THE TIME I WAS THE ONLY CAR OUT THERE!
 
Yeah, I think the states/counties/cities are probably looking for revenue.

Hubby got a ticked the other night in the city for blocking the sidewalk.
 
No, I think it's too many states and counties out of money. I March I got a speeding ticket for doing 68mph on a 65mph highway. He told me I was the fastest car out there, AT THE TIME I WAS THE ONLY CAR OUT THERE!

Did you fight the ticket?

Radar is +/-3 mph and speedometers are +/-3 mph. Gives you leeway of 6mph. Judges have heard this before and typically find in the defendant's favor, and then berate the cop for wasting the court's time. They usually don't even need radar and speedo spec sheets just based on precedence.
 
It's too bad that speeding tickets generate more revenue than catching murderers and thiefs.

If it was the other way around, the world would be a much better place.

"To protect and serve"

I don't think so.:frown:
 
Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.296 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102 UP.Link/6.3.1.20.06.3.1.20.0)

I remember my last speeding ticket. When I called in to find out how much the fine was, I almost laughed out loud.

That is until they told me the county fee and court costs!

I don't understand how there can be court costs that exorbitant when you mail in the fine pleading no contest.
 
Back
Top