Cedar Rapids Woman Has Traffic Ticket In Front Of Iowa Supreme Court
The automated traffic cameras on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids aren't ticketing drivers anymore, but a ticket from one more than two years ago has made its way to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Marla Leaf of Cedar Rapids says she was ticketed by one of the cameras on I-380 on February 5, 2015, when she was driving her Ford Mustang. Leaf remembers driving home from an eye appointment that day and claims the roads were icy. She says cars were passing her on both sides and remembers she was driving between 50 and 55 miles-per-hour, in an area with a speed limit of 55. The speed camera ticket she received said she was going 68 miles-per-hour. Leaf also says she'd never had a speeding ticket prior to the 75-dollar one she received from the automated camera.
Why take a $75 ticket all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court? Leaf says it's because she's not guilty. That's not the only reason, though. According to the Des Moines Register, her attorney James Larew claims the ticket is:
Violating equal protection and due process clauses of the Iowa Constitution in part because it delegates police power to Gatso USA — the private, for-profit company hired to run the equipment."
Leaf's case was lumped together with six others in Des Moines. Hers had actually been heard before, by the Iowa Court of Appeals. That court sided with the city. She's hoping for a different outcome this time, though it'll probably be several months before that decision comes.
[via Des Moines Register]