South Pasadena Seek Dismissal of Tickets Issued In Bus Sting
The South Pasadena police department wanted to penalize drivers who were failing to come to a complete stop while school buses were stopped with their flashing red lights on. To catch drivers who were disobeying this law, they set up a sting operation to catch the violators. Now it appears that the tickets they handed out are not valid, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.
The $500 a piece citations were handed out by the South Pasadena police department during a sting in which two police cadets walked on and off a school bus parked on Huntington Drive near Milan Avenue. According to the article, however, "The vehicle code specifies that drivers may not pass a school bus with its red lights flashing when it is "stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading any schoolchildren."
After meeting with the city attorney, the police determined that they didn’t meet the requirements for the code and decided to ask the courts to dismiss the citations.
This is an interesting example of the type of help an experienced criminal defense attorney can offer. What if the police had decided to not review the conditions of this sting and the citations were considered valid? An experienced criminal defense attorney would know to ask the proper questions regarding the circumstances behind the issuing of the citation. Investigating the language of the penal code involved in any case is something any skilled criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles will know to do.
Not all charges are as innocent as traffic citations. Most criminal charges can be very serious and a conviction could involve serious fines and even jail time. As this article demonstrates, police authorities make mistakes in the issuing of citations and making arrests more often than some people realize. It is important to make sure that your rights are defended at all times. Contact an experienced Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer today for a free consultation of your case at the Law Offices of Lawrence Wolf.
