Posted on Sun, Aug. 10, 2008

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Watchdog: You're presumed innocent until you pay the fine

Once you’ve paid a municipal court fine, you might as well have done the crime — even if you think otherwise.

Or so two Tarrant County residents discovered when, in separate incidents, they paid fines for traffic violations and later questioned the validity of the citations. Each wanted refunds, but as they soon found out, it’s not that easy.

Here are their stories.

No helmet

On June 10, Bedford elementary teacher Heidi Van Cleave was ticketed for not wearing a helmet and not having a proper license to drive a mo-ped. (Like motorcyclists, mo-ped users must have a special license.) She had been riding her Kymco People 50 around town for two years without ever being stopped.

"I thought Texas was a 'no helmet’ state," Van Cleave, 40, said.

It is. But you have to meet certain criteria to be exempt from wearing a helmet.

A Bedford police officer asked Van Cleave whether she had a card showing that she had completed a Department of Public Safety course, one of the ways you can gain an exemption. She hadn’t, so the officer gave her a ticket.

According to city records, Van Cleave was supposed to pay a $140 fine. She came in on July 16, pleaded not guilty and was routed to the municipal prosecutor, who made a deal to give her deferred disposition if she pleaded guilty.

The deal dropped her fine to $110, including fees. She paid, then learned that another way to gain an exemption was showing proof of $10,000 worth of medical insurance coverage.

Van Cleave, who has insurance through her job (although it’s still unclear whether she has the coverage required), returned to court to change her plea to not guilty and asked the city to refund her money.

She was told she could file "a motion to set aside judgment," but she couldn’t find forms online to fill out. After spending about 20 hours researching the issue online, going to the municipal court and talking with the prosecutor on the telephone, she contacted The Watchdog.

"I have to jump through all these hoops to get my money back," she said. "I shouldn’t have had to do this in the first place."

Here’s what The Watchdog found out. To be exempt from wearing a helmet, you must be over 21 and either have completed the driving class or have at least $10,000 of coverage specifically for motorcycle-related injuries, according to the state’s transportation code.

"Just whipping out a medical card won’t do it," Bedford Police Chief David Flory said. Finding insurance cards that indicate that type of coverage could be tricky, he acknowledged.

Many motorcycle and mo-ped drivers send $5 and proof of class certification or insurance coverage to the state to get a sticker that goes on the back of the vehicle and shows that drivers meet the criteria.

"If you don’t want to be stopped [for not wearing a helmet], get a sticker or take a course," Flory said.

Van Cleave is unlikely to get her money back, even though she said she filed a motion Friday to set aside the judgment.

Although he wouldn’t speak specifically about the case, Ryan Kellus Turner, general counsel and director of education for the Texas Municipal Courts Education Center in Austin, said the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has found that when a fine is paid, the judgment has been satisfied. "There’s nothing left to appeal," he said.

Some judges will consider a motion to set aside a judgment, but it’s left to their discretion, he said.

53 in a 45

Don Traylor of Saginaw, a 60-year-old retired Pacific Union Railroad employee, filed such a motion, but it was denied. He had been ticketed in Flower Mound on June 27.

While driving south on Farm Road 2499, he speeded up to keep an 18-wheeler from swerving into him. Minutes later, Flower Mound police ticketed him for going 53 mph in a 40-mph zone. "I didn’t know how fast I was going. All I cared about was getting away from that truck," Traylor said.

On July 11, he went to the municipal court, pleaded no contest and paid the $182 fine. He has a commercial driver’s license, which makes him ineligible for a driver’s safety class that would have kept the incident off his record and lessened his fine.

After paying, he realized that the posted speed on that stretch of road was 45 mph, not 40 mph, as indicated on his citation.

So Traylor returned to the municipal court. The police were polite, apologized and said they would correct it, he said. But after many phone conversations, a police supervisor told him the fine couldn’t be reversed once it was paid.

"Normally, when we find an error on a citation, the officer cuts a memo to the court that says to dismiss it," Flower Mound police Lt. Wess Griffin said. But because Traylor had paid the fine before the mistake was noticed, the case was closed, Griffin said.

Traylor was out the money and stuck with the speeding ticket on his record.

Turner advises drivers to "give careful thought to what is happening" when dealing with municipal court citations. A citation is a substitute for a custodial arrest for a criminal offense, Turner said. It saves "the peace officer time from transporting the citizen to jail . . . and spares the citizen the hassle of being handcuffed and taken in."

Defendants who want to contest a ticket must plead not guilty and should consider getting legal counsel, he said.