Former D.C. cop admits falsifying radar-camera testing records

A former D.C. police officer admitted Thursday to falsifying logs regarding the testing of mobile photo-radar cameras that issue speeding tickets — a move that resulted in the department having to refund more than $17,000 in traffic ticket fines.

the 22-year department veteran was supposed to be monitoring photo-radar equipment during overtime shifts and taking test photographs once an hour with the cameras to ensure they were working properly. In 2008 and 2009, prosecutors said Mr. Cephas failed to take the once-an-hour shots on 33 occasions and covered up the mistakes by rolling back the clock on the radar unit in order to make it appear he had properly tested the machines.

I once had to sit through a traffic court all day. I had been subpoenaed to testify which was totally unnecessary as the guy simply plead guilty and was fined $15.

I got to noticing when a cop testified in a speeding case he would always say something about his radar being tested before and after something. I guess it wasn’t all that important but I wondered if they really did do all that testing.

DC cops (and courts) are insanely corrupt. I went to court twice to fight parking tickets which were written with the time 2 hours into the future. Both times I flagged down patrol officers who wrote statements on the reverse of the ticket and included their names and badge numbers. In one case the officer was at traffic court and verified his written statement. I was still required to pay an expired meter violation (total was $127.00) for doing nothing wrong.
On several occasions I watched parking enforcement (PE) write tickets for every meter (none were expired). The classic was the PE writing the ticket less than 5 minutes after parking and feeding quarters into the meter. I was unloading parts and tools while the ticket was being written.

Ya know, I was a Prosecutor for 25 years and while most cops are honest hard workers, early on I was stunned at how often evidence was falsified or at least shaded. Not a majority of the time by any means, but more than rare.

My favorite “traffic cop” moment was a VA State Trooper testifying in traffic court (General District Court in VA). Now know that Traffic Court is BORING as can be. So the trooper is testifying in a speeding case that some good citizen has decided to try. It was a pace (not radar) case.

So the judge is fighting boredom, I’m fighting boredom as I am sitting there training a brand new Prosecutor . . . you get the picture. Also, for some odd reason, this judge had decided to take the tried cases first. Usually they take the guilty pleas to get everyone out of there. And Troopers have a LOT of cases.

Anyway . . .

There we sit. And on Direct testimony the Trooper says something like, “I was following the vehicle and I determined it was going about 80 MPH. At first I wasn’t going to pull him over as I thought it was an off duty Trooper in n unmarked vehicle.”

Well the judge WOKE UP! “Are you telling me that you would NOT have pulled over a speeding Trooper who was NOT on duty??

We all knew what was coming. The Judge tore apart the Trooper on the stand and then said . .

“All defendants in this Trooper’s case please rise”

About 80% of the Courtroom stood. (And this was Fairfax County and it was PACKED)

“Your cases are dismissed.”

We were ... highly amused.

I am sure that DC traffic courts are worse than normal but just about all traffic courts are kangaroo courts.

I used to work with a guy who was an attorney. He fought every traffic ticket he ever got and always won. Basically as soon as the judge found out he was a lawyer, he dismissed the case.

My theory is they knew they would eventually lose on appeal and it was not worth their time to pursue the case.

More likely all those dismissals are cases of “professional courtesy”.

Keep in mind that all these judges and lawyers all run around in the same social circles, belong to the same country clubs and fraternities, have friends/siblings/children that are either directly related or related through marriage, are all politically connected, blah blah blah.

It the same reason why Corzine will never be prosecuted for stealing customer funds at MF Global. He’s too connected to all the prosecutors.

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