Latest Weather Blog
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT: AG's office says thousands of La. 1 speeding tickets sent by mail are illegal
Related Story
ADDIS - Attorney General Liz Murrill says recent speeding citations alleging violations in school zones along La. 1 are illegal, nullifying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines that could have been collected.
More than 4,000 speeding tickets were issued in a two-week period by Ward 2 Constable Ron Tetzel. The WBRZ Investigative Unit learned the tickets were for drivers near Lukeville Elementary School in Addis.
The tickets, based on readings from a hand-held radar gun that clocks speed and scans license plates, arrived in the mail. Residents who received them were confused about where they came from, prompting calls to local officials, including District 17 Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter. He brought the issue to the AG's office.
"I am a huge supporter of law enforcement, but this is nothing but a money grab," he said.
Act 103, which became law in May of this year, specifically restricts the use of manned automated speed enforcement devices. Kleinpeter discovered the constable's office and school board did not have a cooperative endeavor agreement, which is a violation.
Since Tetzel was supposed to enforce speed limits in school zones, any tickets issued on weekends, holidays, or more than an hour before or after the start and close of school are also illegal.
"They were told if you operate within the parameters of the statute then you can clearly do it, and they weren't," Kleinpeter said.
According to West Baton Rouge Superintendent Chandler Smith, at the beginning of the school year, Tetzel reached out about enforcing the speed limits in school zones. Smith recalls Tetzel said he would install two cameras on poles and that the school system would get 10 percent of each $150 citation. No agreement was made with the school board.
While most of the tickets have not been paid, the school system stood to receive $60,000 off of those 4,000 citations. As far as Smith knows, the school system has not received any money.
According to Kleinpeter, around $300,000 would have gone to the offices of the constable and justice of the peace. The rest would go to the company that sells the radar gun.
Tetzel could not be reached for comment.
The AG's office is telling residents not to pay for these tickets. If you already have, they are looking into ways to recover your money.
News
