Ian Quietly Found Not Guilty in Parking Ticket Case!

June 28, 2010 by Ian
Filed under: Noncooperation, Update

Howard B. Lane We recently hosted a guest blog by local talk radio personality Mark Edge who announced he’d challenged a parking ticket and after scheduling a trial and then rescheduling it, the charge was “nol prossed” (that’s legalese for dropped) by the city’s persecutor.

That made me curious. I had actually gone to trial in April over the parking ticket that was left on my car back in November. At the end of the hearing, the robed man, Howard B. Lane, said he’d take the matter under advisement. I hadn’t heard anything from Keene District Court on this matter since the trial. I thought perhaps this was due to me changing my address and having a notice fall through the cracks. So to satisfy my curiosity, I dropped in on the court this afternoon, a full two months past the date of trial. The helpful young lady behind the counter retrieved the case file for me. I discovered that I had been found Not Guilty on the same date of the trial! (Here’s the proof, though I never pleaded not guilty as Lane indicates on the complaint.) There was no record of any notice being sent to me about the decision. Apparently the court has no obligation to provide notice when the finding is in the favor of the defendant.

Before you go calling this a win, remember that every time the bureaucrats involve themselves in your life, you will lose at the very least your time. That said, it’s great to have an explicit “Not Guilty” in a parking ticket case here in Keene! It should help encourage others to similarly refuse to pay and instead take the tickets that are littered on their cars to court. Load up the system with parking ticket trials until they stop enforcing that ordinance!

Noncooperation wins again!!

http://webryders.net Nick Ryder

This is great. I'm quickly being joined by others who have been "not-guilty" in Keene Court.

Someone still has to do it twice to catch up with me.
Larry The Dwarf

It would be nice to know the robed-man's reason for the not-guilty finding. Any speculation?
Paul

Let's work to get Keene to cede control of each parking space to the business immediately abutting it. Let them decide how to manage it. I'm sure some would want meters, or strict time limits, and some would not.

I'd happily pay the posted fee, if any, for parking in the spot for someone's business.

This is something that could be done easily, with relatively little headache.
http://dailyanarchist.com Seth

I can't wait until roads become completely privatized.
Bradley Jardis

Ian,

Great news.

Like Lance, I am very curious as to why this finding of not-guilty was handed down……………… Do you know off the top of your head?
http://freetalklive.com/ Ian Freeman

Nope. Perhaps they were unable to prove that was my car, as the plate is on a different car now.

Or perhaps they just can't win these cases, as evidenced by them dropping Mark's charge.
http://webryders.net Nick Ryder

I don't often speculate on major things, but it seems interesting that they couldn't convict Ian on this, then dropped charges against Mark.

I almost think it's possible that they've realized parking tickets are unenforceable in court. Of course, people will keep paying, because non-activist people don't go to court for hours for $5
http://schoolsucksproject.com Ofer Nave

"Of course, people will keep paying, because non-activist people don’t go to court for hours for $5"

Agreed. And on that subject:

I had a nice chat with Marc Stevens at PorcFest about a few simple but (hopefully) effective ideas related to his work and compatible with Keene activism. The two ideas are:

1) Design and print business cards that say something like "get out of your parking ticket! MarcStevens.net" with maybe some info about the show (No State Project) and book (Adventures in Legal Land) and what they're about (I'm bad at marketing, so the exact content is left as an exercise for the reader). Activists can keep a few in their wallet (especially while doing Robin Hood activism) and place one on a car's windshield next to the parking ticket whenever one is spotted. This targets people when they have self-interest incentivizing them to pay attention, and pointing them at a show hosted by an unabashed voluntaryist.

2) Design and print new FIJA flyers that include info about Marc's show and books. The benefits are twofold:

a) In addition to being worth handing to jurors, they now also have relevant information for *defendants*. Expands the potential candidates with no additional cost in time or effort!

b) If a person actually understands the information about jury nullification and attempts it in court (which is, afterall, the whole point of FIJA activism), it will likely be their first experience in defying authority and possible the first spark in their mind of rational re-evaluation of statism. What better time to give them a lead for further knowledge – especially to a body of knowledge immediately relevant to their recent experience (an anarchist analysis of the legal system)?

I think Marc liked the ideas, and maybe he'll get around to creating some art for these purposes… by why wait for that?
Paul

Here's a random question for anybody:

If you're a juror assigned to a non-crime, and you plan to nullify, is it better to simply vote "not-guilty", which would likely lead to a hung jury, or to explain your reasoning to the other jurors, in hopes of an "innocent" verdict?

If you explain your reasoning to the other jurors, and one reports it to the judge, is there a chance you'd be thrown off?
http://freetalklive.com/ Ian Freeman

Yes, according to FIJA, if I recall correctly.