Norma and Win Eaton on their property off NW Violet Avenue, where Win was working on their house construction Wednesday afternoon.
Albany’s photo radar program in the school zone on North Albany Road hit a bump Wednesday when two speeding tickets were dismissed because the city could not prove that the cameras were working properly.
I heard about this from a friend of Win and Norma Eaton, who have been working for years on building a house off Violet Avenue. Then I got in touch with Win.
For many years Eaton was an electrical contractor in the mid-valley. Then he returned to law school, and for the last several years his law firm in Bakersfield, Calif., has represented clients in federal immigration cases. Now and then he also serves as a traffic-court judge in the Kern County Superior Court.
On separate days last spring, Eaton and his wife got tickets for going through the 20 mph school zone at 31 mph or more.
Preparing for Wednesday’s trial on his and his wife’s tickets in Albany Municipal Court, Eaton on Sept. 15 filed a discovery request with the city police for, among other things, camera calibration and repair records.
The police response on Oct. 31 included this paragraph:
“The calibration logs for the time period requested have an error and the dates did not print on the logs. We contacted the red-light camera servicer (Verra Mobility) and they stated that there is no way to retroactively fix the issue so that the calibration logs have dates on them.”
In a motion to the city court, Eaton argued this meant that the city cannot “establish foundational reliability” of the cameras as required by state law and the Oregon Evidence Code.
He asked the court to dismiss the citations, and that’s what Municipal Court Judge Jessica Meyer did.
It’s not clear how this affects other pending cases of speeding tickets based on the cameras on North Albany Road and three other Albany locations, or whether it does. But I’ll try to find out. (hh)
Now the next step is to create a class action lawsuit against the city for improper ticketing.
funny the lengths people will go to instead of just slowing down to below 11 mph over the posted speed.
Absolutely
I’m with Gothic Albany. Let’s have a class action lawsuit!!. I got a ticket at Queen & Geary a few years ago generated by a camera for alleged improper right turn on red. I went to court…where they show the video footage of your vehicle. The judge said, with surprise in his voice, “The light is green,” when my vehicle was starting its right turn.
The officer who reviews the video was right there, but did not budge or say a word. I lost and paid my fine. If I had known I could request calibration and repair records on the camera, I would have done so. (BTW, I do not have a lawyer spouse.)
If the judge sat there and said it was green how did you lose?
Any tickets between those dates should be thrown out. Makes me wonder how accurate any of them are.
Why is it that the wealthy and/or middle class always find a technicality to dodge responsibility for their obvious misdeeds?
Why is the city letting BlackRock make a profit on our back?
A judge should set an example and follow the law. Why does he think he can speed through a school zone?
He didn’t think that. His speedometer showed he was within the limit.
So this guy is a lawyer and a traffic court judge and still went 11 mph faster than the posted speed limit and with his special insight gets tickets dismissed on a technicality? Sounds more like judges’ professional courtesy than anything else while the rest of us just have to pay? Some justice system.
Sam e ching: He wasn’t speeding. His speedometer showed he was within the limit.
Well then ALL of the tickets going back to when the cameras could be deemed to be accurate need to be thrown out and driving records amended.
One would think that having “calibration logs” in a format that has already been well-tested to pass muster in court would be exactly the kind of expertise that you would be paying thousands of dolalrs for by hiring a company like Verry Mobility to setup and run your cameras in the first place.
I guess not. Why bother if you get paid anyway.
Finding technicalities to overturn decisions… It’s what lawyers do. However, it seems odd they have not denied the basic premise they were, in fact, speeding. Left out of the story because?
Neither have they admitted it.
I’ll trust a judge over any mayor/council person we’ve had in the last 20 years.
I LOVE THIS!!! Win for the people! These 1984 tactics employed by our city are unconscionable.
Maybe instead of the nonsense coffee-with-a-cop program they can put an officer in a car down there to pull over offenders-
This is exactly why AI will never replace people. The city wants to punish people for any little thing to get money. Which is funny coming from a city government that has made some monumental errors (waste water, excessive fines ect.) without any consequences what so ever. Not to mention the people who drive while using cell phones, drive recklessly without speeding and do not use any of their signaling devices to let you know before they cut you off. A police officer would see all of this. None of this is about safety, it is about revenue.
Exactly
Yes, everyone should follow the posted speed. However, this judge has done a public service. Now everyone knows that if they receive a ticket cia the cameras they can request the maintenance logs for those cameras to make the city prove the the equipment is accurately working. This is really helpful information. Also, everyone who has gotten a ticket from that camera should have their cases dismissed based on this public information.
How come we aren’t asking what days/time did these tickets get handed out? If school is out, 31 is an acceptable speed. I dislike seeing Albanians jump to conclusions. Hasso, didn’t you find out these facts?
I didn’t. But now I have: The first school zone citation was for 36 mph at 2:15 p.m. on May 6, a Tuesday. The second was for 31 mph at 4:32 p.m. on June 3, also a Tuesday.