Most of us have had that uncomfortable feeling with the flashing lights behind us and the siren that accompanies it. I had the unfortunate luck to experience it on the morning of August 6th of this year. My wife and I had just moved into our new Seven Meadows residence a few days earlier, and I was heading into town on a previously untraveled section of Gaston that connects to the Westpark Tollway (1093). As I traveled southbound on Gaston I passed through what appeared to be an unmarked, unstriped 3-way intersection. Little did I know that a trap had been set.
Shortly after passing through the intersection I was surprised to see a Fort Bend County Sheriff's deputy with sirens sounding and lights flashing. I pulled over just short of 1093, and asked the deputy why I was being pulled over. She said that I was stopped for running a stop sign, to which I promptly replied, "What stop sign?". She pointed to a sign on the left hand side of the road in the median. I promptly pointed out that the sign should be on the right hand side of the road. Apparently the sign which was supposed to be on the right side was indeed missing, as you can clearly see from this photo.
Being extremely perplexed with the situation, I politely pleaded my case but the officer was unwilling to listen. She promptly issued me a ticket, and told me that I could discuss it with the judge. Needless to say, I was pretty upset with the whole situation so I returned to my home to grab my camera. When I came back to the supposed scene of the crime the officer had left, so I took a nice snapshot of the missing stop sign.(pole) I also called the Fort Bend County Sheriff's department and spoke with the patrol sergeant on duty. He also tried to justify the ticket as perfectly valid. According to the deputy and the patrol sergeant I spoke with, the ticket was valid if there was striping at the intersection or there was at least one sign, regardless of its location (left or right). At this point I was even more upset, so I vowed to get some answers.
After running a few errands, I returned to the intersection in question about 2 hours later. To my pleasant surprise the deputy was again parked on Cansfield waiting for another unsuspecting driver. This time she was not as far back on Cansfield, but she was still hidden from view by the Seven Meadows marquee and nowhere near the missing stop sign. I was fortunate to snap this shot of both the missing sign and the deputy hiding in wait.
After taking this second photo I walked over to talk to the deputy and again question her behavior. It seemed pretty reasonable to me that she would have parked her car near the missing sign or attempted to alert or direct traffic if she were actually interested in protecting the public. After further questioning, she again said the ticket was legitimate and instructed me to take it up with the judge.
I did exactly that, contacting the presiding judge for Precinct 3 and asking him to dismiss my ticket as a case of entrapment. I received no reply to my letter, so I grudgingly made my designated appointment and plead not guilty. I was told that my case could not be dismissed until I talked with the prosecutor, which happened today, some 4 months later. I arrived at the courthouse before my designated 9:00 AM appointment. After a 30 minute wait I was escorted to a nearby courtroom with a group of 20-25 other defendants. I sat in the courtroom until 11:30 before I finally had a chance to speak with the prosecutor. When my name was called we went to a back room and the prosecutor asked me a few short questions clarifying the location of the alleged infraction and promptly dismissed my ticket. He also thanked me for the quality of the photos I sent which were printed on glossy photo stock.
While I am obviously pleased with the final outcome, it's hard to overlook the fact that I was inconvenienced with two days attending court for what was obviously a bogus citation. Because of the principle involved and my inquisitive (my wife would use a different term) nature, I was more than willing to see this case through to its final outcome. A lot of people would have simply paid the ticket, and I have no doubt that the deputy in question was counting on this. Including preparation, drive time, and my time spent in the Precinct 3 court room, I probably racked up 12-15 hours which could have otherwise been used for business.
While I was researching my case, I did come across a nice piece of literature called the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, or MUTCD for short. After doing a little reading I found section 2B.06 on page 2B-3. The manual reads as follows:
"The STOP sign shall be installed on the right side of the approach to which it applies."
Having spent 20 years driving in Texas I intuitively knew this to be the norm, but it was certainly vindicating to find it spelled out in black and white. You can click on the following link to view the entire manual:
ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/library/pubs/gov/devices/2006part2b.pdf
I should clarify that this ordeal hasn't tarnished my opinion of patrol officers; I already had a healthy amount of skepticism! While most law enforcement officers do a wonderful, often thankless job, there are still too many instances where the value of the traffic citation supersedes the duty to protect and serve the public.
It's no secret that traffic tickets can be a huge source of revenue for budget coffers, and court officials know that most people will pay the fine rather than fight the ticket. Houston officials recently released a study on the effectiveness of their red light cameras but they failed to talk about the revenue generated by those cameras and rights of due process which are being thrown by the wayside. Most traffic courts, and particularly Precinct 3 traffic court, seem to be designed to be inconvenient, time consuming and unpleasant, so that more fines are paid without contest. Red light cameras are simply the next political evolution of the process.
Upon receiving my written request, it would have been fairly simple for the Pct. 3 judge to turn my file over to the prosecutor for dismissal. This would have saved me two unnecessary trips and cleared another space on the court docket. Instead, I was forced to make a trip to court not once, but twice, and wait for several hours to have a prosecutor tell me that my photos were nice and that there was indeed a sign missing where it should have been posted.
I can't speak for others, but my experience with the Fort Bend County Sheriff's department and the officials in Precinct 3 leaves a lot to be desired. Save for the prosecutor who dismissed my ticket, I was treated like another spoke in the wheel with little regard for my time or the validity of my defense. Email correspondence to the Sheriff and his Chief Deputy went unanswered. I can only surmise that the folks running this organization haven't read their their own published mission statement.
Case Dismissed!
