Missouri High Court Erases $100 Camera-Generated Ticket, Faults City for Lacking Judicial Review
A onetime Kansas City police officer who took his challenge of a $100 traffic ticket all the way to the Missouri Supreme Court has prevailed.
Retired Missouri Highway Patrol Officer Adolph Belt Jr. challenged the ticket issued in Springfield, and the ruling effectively shutters the program and will lead to the dismissal of all pending tickets.
On Tuesday, the Missouri high court held that Springfield’s procedure was flawed because administrative hearing officers, not judges, were used, the Kansas City Star reports.
“The city may choose to have the violations heard and determined by an associate circuit judge of the circuit in which it is located, by a municipal judge or at a county municipal court if one is created in the county where the city is situated,” the court held (PDF). “No provision is made for a city such as Springfield to have an administrative tribunal decide ordinance violations of this nature.”
Similar red-light camera programs in Kansas City and St. Louis aren’t likely to be impacted by the decision because violators there can appeal tickets to a municipal court judge, the Star and St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
In the opinion, the court described Belt, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, as a traffic expert. He contested the ticket he received for running a red light because he timed the yellow light at the intersection and found that it was too quick, the Joplin Globe reports. He also maintained that the signal and cameras were out of sync.
