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Exceptions can be made; exceptions can be abused
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Published: November 2, 2008
The language on a Feb. 15, 2007, internal memo sent to assistant prosecutors in Forsyth County seems clear: No deals for anyone caught driving faster than 90 mph.
District Attorney Tom Keith wrote the two-page document as a guideline for determining who's eligible for leniency on traffic tickets -- people with good driving records, those who haven't caught previous breaks and those with "no DWI convictions since conception," among other criteria.
It also specifies who is not eligible. A sentence in item six (out of 20) spells it out.
"Speeding 81 or over in either speed zone will need supervisor's review before any reduction is offered, but absolutely no reduction for 90 and over," Keith wrote.
Seems straightforward.
But there are exceptions: People facing emergency situations, and at least one longtime state legislator, Rep. Walter Church, D-Burke, who apparently tried to intimidate the trooper who pulled him over.
Last month, Keith dismissed a ticket Church had received for driving 92 in a 65 mph-zone and following too closely. Keith decided yesterday afternoon to re-assess the situation after speaking to the trooper himself.
"You had better information than I did," Keith said. "I'm going to reinstate the violation and ask for an outside prosecutor to handle the case."
‘This is ridiculous'
Around 7:30 the morning of April 25, Trooper James Seagle of the N.C. Highway Patrol fell in behind a 2006 Lexus on Interstate 40 with a license plate that reads "House 33" -- a designation reserved for representatives and also a clear indication of who might be driving.
According to Seagle's handwritten notes, the Lexus passed him on the left side of Interstate 40 and zipped up close behind a gray Honda. That car moved out of the way, the Lexus accelerated past 90 mph and Seagle hit the blue lights.
According to the citation that Seagle wrote, (Church) said "‘I'm on my way down here for a foreclosure in the morning' … ‘My thing must be messed up. It said 79; I'm going to call your boss the Colonel. This is ridiculous.'" The ‘Colonel' would be Col. Fletcher Clay, who was the patrol commander at the time.
That sounds like a powerful and perturbed man throwing his weight around.
Seagle wouldn't comment beyond what was written on the ticket; the state doesn't hire dummies to serve as troopers.
What happened next looks like a classic case of the powerful getting more access to justice than you or I would.
The trooper set a court date for June 3. It passed, most likely continued until a later date.
In the meantime, Church (or his attorney) had a doctor write a letter that said his wife suffers from dementia. He took his car to the shop and got it fixed. He then sent a copy of a bill for $636.17 that showed he had work done to his speedometer. And he made a few phone calls.
The effort paid off Sept. 25. A note attached to the case file indicates that Church received a voluntary dismissal "per TJK" and notes "medical issues w/wife."
Odd, but Seagle didn't note any medical issues or the presence of a distressed passenger.
‘That didn't happen'
As is always the case, there is another side to this story. A lawyer -- it's still not clear who -- called Keith on Church's behalf and told him that Church's wife was in the car at the time and had been extremely agitated due to her medical condition. The lawyer also said that Church's speedometer wasn't working properly.
Fine, Keith said, send me a doctor's note and show me a bill for the repair work. Exceptions can be made under certain conditions -- people rushing to hospitals, emergency-room physicians and the occasional soldier on the way to deployment.
Because laws for excessive speeding were tightened by the legislature in 2007, Keith's options were limited to dismissing the ticket or prosecuting it fully. There's no wiggle room for a reduction.
(Church voted for and against various versions of that bill before taking an excused absence the day it passed, Aug. 2, 2007.)
Based on what he was told and the fact that the 80-year-old Church has a clean driving record, Keith cut the legislator a huge break.
"My mother died of Alzheimer's so I have some sympathy for the situation …whether that's the correct story or not, we were sent a letter from a doctor that says she suffers from dementia."
As to Church's recollection of events, his son, Walter Church Jr., returned a call Friday on behalf of his dad, who he said was suffering from a severe head cold and couldn't hear very well.
He repeated that his mother was in the car, that she had become very agitated and Church Sr. was merely trying to get to an exit.
He also said that the speedometer in his father's car was broken.
"He thought he was doing something in the 70s," Church Jr. said. "Anything more would be extremely out of character for him.
As to Seagle's notes that Church Sr. tried to throw his weight around: "That didn't happen that I'm aware of … he also didn't think he was speeding."
New information
The situation drastically changed yesterday when Keith spoke to Seagle by telephone. Police officers tend to remember every detail when they ticket or arrest powerful people because things can get tricky. Seagle was no exception.
Church passed at least two exits along Interstate 40, one at Stratford Road and another at Peters Creek Parkway, before stopping near U.S. 311. His wife was indeed in the car, but at no time displayed any signs of medical or other distress.
"The trooper said he was very polite when he was first stopped but then said a few things when he wrote the ticket," Keith said.
Things that were duly noted in Seagle's handwriting on the back of the infraction where there was also plenty of room to record any other circumstances.
Did a veteran legislator nearly get away with a sweetheart deal that wouldn't be afforded to the rest of us? That's a matter for the court of public opinion. A court of law will decide at a later date whether Church will have his driver's license suspended just like anybody else would.
"I got hoodooed," Keith said yesterday. "It wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last."
■ Scott Sexton can be reached at 727-7481 or at ssexton@wsjournal.com.
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