Posted on 09/19/2002 11:52:38 AM PDT by meia
Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt ran the tollbooth without paying.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmomalley@naplesnews.com
The Collier County Sheriff's Office has voided the ticket given to the driver of one of the cars stopped on Alligator Alley last week during a terrorism scare, saying the tollkeeper Wednesday recalled taking the $1.50 from the man.
"She was very nervous at the time," said Collier Sheriff Don Hunter.
He said the tollbooth attendant, who had earlier given a sworn statement that the driver hadn't paid, had spotted the tag on the front of the car which had been given as part of a description to all tollkeepers in the state as a car that needed to be stopped by authorities.
"She became flustered and didn't recall," Hunter said. He said it was a Car Max tag on the front of the car that caught her attention.
Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt, 25, the driver of one of the two cars stopped on the Alley on Friday to be checked out for a possible terrorism-related incident, ran the tollbooth without paying.
Alligator Alley was shut down in both directions for 17 hours, and the men, who were headed to Larkin Hospital in South Miami to start work as medical students, were detained between 11:45 p.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday while they were questioned by local, state and federal authorities.
Eunice Stone reported to police that they'd been in a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, Ga., on Thursday morning and were laughing about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and saying that another, even worse, attack was set for Sept. 13, the day they were stopped at Mile Marker No. 92 on the interstate. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued the alert.
All three men, Ayman Gheith, 27, Omar Choudhary, 23, and Butt, who are of Middle Eastern descent, have denied talking about Sept. 11 or any attacks on Miami. They've appeared on news shows around the nation since the stop.
But a Collier deputy, Darrel Kehne, on special patrol, looking for the cars and their occupants, spotted the two cars and stopped them. A Collier sheriff's bomb detection dog alerted on the rear of both cars and that brought dozens of officers to the Alley.
Authorities after the daylong investigation, which included a search by a bomb-detecting robot, helicopters bearing special equipment and a thorough scouring of the cars, determined the incident was a hoax. The searches turned up no signs of explosives or bomb-making material.
Deputies, after interviewing the tollkeeper after the stop, wrote a ticket — the fine is $100 plus $26 in court costs — to Butt.
But the videotape at the tollbooth on Interstate 75 also shows a transaction between Butt and the tollbooth attendant, Hunter said. The ticket should be officially voided today, Hunter said.
Hunter said investigators showed the tollkeeper, who'd already given a sworn statement saying Butt's car had run the tollbooth, the video which logs the transaction Wednesday.
"He reached his hand out. She reached her hand out," Hunter said. "There appears to have been a transaction. Then she excitedly waves her hand toward the east. We believe she was trying to flag us down."
Butt contended that he paid the toll, Hunter said.
"It would not be fair not to check it out," he said.
He said the second car did stop and ask if Butt had paid the toll.
Hunter described the toll taker as "nervous" at the time.
"She said she wasn't scared," he said.
David Kubiliun, one of the attorneys representing the men, said they are pleased the ticket was voided.
"My understanding is that it was voided because videotape showed Mr. Butt did pay the toll," Kubiliun said. "He's very pleased. We're all gratified."
Hunter speculated the attorneys will try to take on other aspects of the stop.
"I'm sure their attorneys will say, 'If this was wrong, what else was wrong?' " Hunter said. "But I'm firm on the rest of it."
He said investigators are still running down other parts of the probe, which he didn't disclose.
"We haven't reached any dead ends," Hunter said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Playing a joke? PLAYING A JOKE? About 9/11? If I hear this phrase one more time I'm gonna puke all over my keyboard.
If we were half the country we once were these punks would have already been sent back to their homelands!
You mean Chicago? They are American citizens after all.
If you know some detail on this please post it. I vaguely recall a report something along the lines that the plate was moved from an uncle's car. (?)
If so it strikes me as another example of the cocky disregard of our countries laws until it comes to their taking advantage of the protection of those laws.
I am an American Citizen but was not born in the United States. Should I be deported if I speed through a tollbooth, talk too loud in a Shoney's or buy fertilizer for my lawn?
In a pig's ass. The 6 Lackawanna Jihadists are too.
Wake up and smell the coffe you doofus!
I don't have a link, but as I recall, it was labeled a "bureaucratic error," late in the day, since the State of Illinois re-uses old plate numbers for new plates, but, in this case (and probably others) failed to update its records. As a result, the database reflected that the plate was registered to another car and owner.
A google search shows that "salt and pepper does seem to be a phrase that Jordanians use to describe an aspect in a situation as well as ingredients in a recipe.
AMMAN — Moderates won a landslide victory in the Islamic Action Front's Shura Council elections, sweeping 80 per cent of the seats. Islamist sources said on Saturday that this unprecedented win is certain to bring about a reversal of the IAF's boycott of legislative elections...The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, usually maintains a tight lid as to the number of eligible voters and those who cast their ballots. Independent sources, however, put the number of IAF members at roughly 3,000.... The party is regarded as the most influential political grouping in Jordan out of 27 registered parties.
“I believe the Islamists will participate. Although the next parliament is expected to be apolitical, the inclusion of Islamists will give it a pinch of salt and pepper,” said former Prime Minister Taher Masri.
[ Taher Masri, a former prime minister of Jordan and currently the country's representative to the Arab League,]
I have to presume that by "talking too loud" you mean "joking" about 9/11 and insinuating a worse 9/13 to come. With that given, instead of your disingenuous statement, then I would reply "Are you Muslim? If yes, incarceration will do until THE WAR IS OVER!
That the police in Florida didn't check out their information either? Just went public with it for as much publicity as they could get?What an absolutely idiotic statement! CNN might be out for ratings but the police do not "go public" for publicity.
This has nothing to do with race. I have issues with evil, insane Jihadists and till the war is over all Muslims are suspect. And I aint going nowhere.
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