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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,904 posts)
Tue Oct 13, 2015, 02:09 PM Oct 2015

Fairfax tickets cars for needing inspection — while they wait for inspections

Appropriately, there were 666 comments to this article when I got to it.

Hat tip, WTOP.

Transportation

Fairfax tickets cars for needing inspection — while they wait for inspections

By Tom Jackman October 11 

Bruce Redwine had seen enough. After years of watching a Fairfax County parking enforcement officer slap tickets on his customers’ cars for expired tags or inspection stickers, usually as the cars were awaiting state inspection or repair at his Chantilly shop, he snatched the latest ticket out of Officer Jacquelyn D. Hogue’s hand and added some profane commentary on top.

Hogue responded by having Redwine arrested for felony assault on a police officer, though she is not a police officer. And when the case first went to court, a Fairfax judge sentenced Redwine to four days in jail.

Redwine appealed, got a jury trial last month and was acquitted within minutes. But the bitterness he feels at having to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees, plus being booked, fingerprinted and photographed at the county jail, with no prior record, is shared by numerous fellow auto repair operators at the Mariah Business Center on Sullyfield Circle off Route 28.
....



Fairfax County police parking enforcement Officer Jacquelyn D. Hogue, who ticketed a vehicle at the Chantilly Service Center and later charged the shop’s owner with felony assault on a police officer. (Fairfax County Police Department)
....

For now, in the weeks since Redwine’s recent assault trial, there has been quiet. Police say Hogue has been assigned to a different part of the county. ... But dating to about 2008, numerous repair shop operators say they received near-daily visits from Hogue to ticket their customers. Redwine said one customer dropped his car off over a weekend, and when Redwine arrived on Monday morning, the car had two tickets on it.

Commenter dave20151, at 1:21 PM EDT, says there's more to this story than meets the eye.
10 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies

underpants

(182,281 posts)
1. Reminds my I have to get my car inspected next month
Tue Oct 13, 2015, 02:14 PM
Oct 2015

Where I live it's rare for a car to get rejected well at least if you know the right place to go. Thank you White Privilege!

 

yeoman6987

(14,449 posts)
5. It's better to have inspections
Tue Oct 13, 2015, 02:56 PM
Oct 2015

It keeps the vehicle in better running condition and makes everyone safer on the road. Emissions test should be required in all 50 states.

peacebird

(14,195 posts)
3. FCPD loves shooting fish in the barrel. One year they started going into bars and restaurantsin Dec
Tue Oct 13, 2015, 02:24 PM
Oct 2015

With their breathalyzers, arresting people for being technically "drunk" even tho they wre not disorderly AND they had a designated driver. It took a huge brouhaha in the news to stop them from arresting people for drinking at their holiday parties to get that practice stopped. In fact, I believe the bars/restaurant owners went to the city council because it was crushing their businesses.

MADem

(135,425 posts)
7. Redwine appealed, got a jury trial last month and was acquitted within minutes.
Tue Oct 13, 2015, 04:04 PM
Oct 2015

Sounds like the People Have Spoken....!!!!

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,904 posts)
10. Later articles and links
Wed Oct 14, 2015, 11:32 AM
Oct 2015

Transportation

Va. lawmaker to propose ban against ticketing cars awaiting inspections

By Tom Jackman October 13 at 7:21 PM 

A Virginia lawmaker said Tuesday that he will introduce a bill during the next General Assembly session that would prohibit law enforcement authorities from ticketing vehicles awaiting state inspections or repairs but otherwise legally parked.

State Del. James M. LeMunyon (R-Fairfax) said he visited operators of car repair shops at Mariah Business Center in Chantilly on Monday after reading in The Washington Post that a parking enforcement officer repeatedly ticketed vehicles there for having expired inspection stickers or license plates. Shop owners said that many of the vehicles were brought to their garages for repairs needed to bring their vehicles into compliance, and one shop operator who performs state inspections said many of his customers’ cars or trucks were simply waiting for the actual inspection.
....

“The police ought to have better things to do,” LeMunyon said, “than play ‘Gotcha!’ with people who are trying to comply with the law.” ... But on Tuesday, the attorney for the county’s police parking enforcement officer in question said the officer regularly received calls from the Chantilly property manager demanding that she issue such tickets and that the officer’s police supervisors instructed her to seek a warrant after an altercation with a repair shop’s owner.

{Fairfax tickets cars for needing inspections — while they wait for inspections}

LeMunyon said that also Monday, he began working with the General Assembly’s legislative research team to determine how to craft a bill enabling police to maintain safe traffic and parking enforcement without targeting drivers or businesses attempting to keep their vehicles safe.
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