Last updated October 2, 2007 11:27 p.m. PT
'Novel' idea beats speeding ticket
Man argues state trooper's trap violated the law
By LARRY LANGE
P-I REPORTER
Carl Hu is one of those unusual people who contested a speeding ticket and won -- and not for the reasons you might guess.
Using what one legal expert called a "novel theory," Hu argued to a judge that when a Washington State Patrol trooper ticketed him, he broke the law himself by waiting in the dark with his car lights off -- something Hu said is illegal for normal drivers.
The judge dismissed the ticket.
Hu
Hu
It's a small victory, but Hu thinks others in similar situations could follow in his wake. "What I've come to learn, to restore my faith in the legal system, is that the police do not have special powers," Hu said recently.
A lawyer and a law professor, apprised of the case, both marveled at how Hu won his battle, but said they don't know whether it would set a precedent.
The State Patrol said its powers have not been curbed, and it does not plan to change its operations because Hu won his case.
Hu's case is unusual. Less than 11 percent of the traffic charges filed in a year are contested in court, according to state statistics, and court administrators estimate that just 37 percent of those result in a finding for the defendant.
Hu, of Bellevue, was returning with his family from a trip one evening in late February when he got a speeding ticket after dark while westbound on Interstate 90 near Ritzville.
The trooper, he said, was parked in the I-90 median with his lights off. Hu said that as he passed, the trooper turned on his lights, left the median and followed him. The trooper then turned his lights off again after stopping Hu.
Questioning the stop the next day, Hu said the State Patrol justified the trooper's actions, saying the median is reserved for police and emergency vehicles, so normal rules don't apply. The State Patrol also cited a law allowing officers to break certain rules involving parking and speeding while doing their jobs.
But Hu reached different conclusions from those references. A state regulation describes medians as a "portion of a divided highway," where the headlights requirement does apply, he said.
He also said the law regarding parking and speeding applies only in emergency responses. He obtained a copy of the State Patrol's operating manual that says troopers "shall obey all laws of the state ... except as provided (by the parking and speeding exemption law) in the official operation of an authorized emergency vehicle."
In court in July, he argued to Ritzville District Judge Adalia Hille that the evidence of his speeding was illegally gathered and the ticket should be thrown out.
The State Patrol still disputes that, but Hille dismissed the ticket.
Without further explanation, Hill said in her ruling, "The state has not met its burden to prove by a preponderance of evidence that you committed this infraction."
She declined repeated requests for interviews.
"To me there's a basic principle ... does the law apply to everybody or are the police above or a part if it?" said Hu, who pursued the case for five months. "Sneaking around in the dark in violation of state law to catch regular, responsible drivers like you and me doesn't strike me as an effective way of keeping our highways safe."
Capt. Jeffrey Otis, who was Trooper T.D. Coley's supervisor when Coley wrote Hu the ticket, said Coley was "not required to turn his lights on in the median because it is our interpretation that the median is not a portion of the road the public has any expectation of using."
In Hille's decision, "there was ... no reason given for the dismissal, nor was any additional information provided to Mr. Hu about why the case was dismissed. Until we hear differently, we will take the position that the trooper was following legal and WSP guidelines," Otis said.
Patrol spokesman Mark Baker said troopers often leave lights off at night to avoid becoming a dangerous distraction to other drivers -- and to more easily catch violators in the act.
"Best practice is to have your emergency lights on, at least," Baker said. But "there are times a trooper does not."
University of Washington professor John Junker called the case "a curiosity." He and Seattle defense lawyer Jeannie Mucklestone said they'd never heard of a traffic-ticket dismissal based on darkened patrol car lights.
Drivers usually challenge speeding tickets on issues such as the accuracy of the officer's observations or whether the officer could clearly see the violation, Mucklestone said.
She described Hu's approach as "completely novel ... that a guy would make it in the first place and novel that the court would buy it."
Both she and Junker agreed that Hille's ruling, coming at the lower court level, won't set a precedent.
"No other district judge would be obliged to follow it," Junker said.
But both credited Hu for taking the case on by himself. Junker said his advice in battling the ticket would be "to put the best shot out there ... if it's the only one you have, you've got to put it out there, but I wouldn't expect it to be successful."
Mucklestone said on learning the ticket was dismissed, "three cheers for him ... he won the hard way, but he won."
P-I reporter Larry Lange can be reached at 206-448-8313 or
larrylange@seattlepi.com.
'Novel' idea beats speeding ticket 
