Unappealing day in court on traffic ticket protest

Susan wrote:

I travel the Connector daily. The officers walking out into the road to point to vehicles they are trying to ticket are a serious safety hazard for everyone.
Fund raising by ticket is unacceptable. I have had two tickets in the last five years,one for allegedly running a red light in Lowell, and the other last year on the Connector claiming I was doing 68 in a 55 zone. Both were wrong. I fought both all the way to court and won in both instances. Once the officer did not show and the other time the judge ruled in my favor. I too have seen the traffic jams and unsafe situations off the Connector caused by traffic stops in bad places.
Good work Lowell Sun and Dennis Shaughnessey for highlighting this problem and giving us all a chance to vent. The City Manager and the councilors need to understand that it is bad for Lowell to continue this process.

Hi Susan, I don't agree. The police have visual eye contact and can decide if and when it is safe to take a step or two out. If the people are paying attention and going even close to the speed limit it is no big deal.For too many years the speed limit wasn't enforced on the connector. The more tickets issued out there now the better. They catch new dummies everyday there.

Thank God for the strict speed limit enforcement on the Lowell Connector.

Tyngsborough wrote:

Willian A. Lisano, the clerk magistrate at the Lowell District Court makes $110,220.75.
There's another William A lisano who works as a court officer for the Trial Court at a salary of $47,510.10.
Are they related?

Father and Son

Lowell Larry wrote:

<quoted text>
Hi Susan, I don't agree. The police have visual eye contact and can decide if and when it is safe to take a step or two out. If the people are paying attention and going even close to the speed limit it is no big deal.For too many years the speed limit wasn't enforced on the connector. The more tickets issued out there now the better. They catch new dummies everyday there.
Thank God for the strict speed limit enforcement on the Lowell Connector.

P.S. Susan... Lowell Larry works in Traffic Enforcement and makes overtime pay writing those tickets.

Dennis, you left out the part about trying to get the ticket fixed. Somehow I don't think you would have written the same article if you had been successful. Those of us who know the whole story are very disappointed in you.

MasterCard wrote:

Dinner for two in Lowell:$60
Parking:$10
Bogus ticket by LPD:$150
Hurting Lowell's economy by never going thre again:
PRICELESS!

SO TRUE - that is why I go out to eat in Burlington, Chelmsford, Dracut and Nashua. The 15 minutes I have to drive are well worth not having to put up with the B.S. roadblocks and constant threat of being ticketed for a random reason. I was a passenger in a car that was stopped on the connector for allegedly doing 58 in a 55; after the car was searched (with both passengers removed and placed into the rear of a police cruiser because my wife "got mouthy" with the cop when she denied she was speeding), my wife was given a speeding ticket and then at the hearing this Lisano clown yelled at her "how DARE you say a sworn police officer is lying?" and then imposed the fine.

Now I am certain that the purpose of the stop was motivated by something other than speeding since she was driving in the right hand lane and the pig only alleged 3 mph over the limit. I am betting it was a demand from the superintendent to raise revenue and that the officer was in a pissy mood because of it.

Reality wrote:

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P.S. Susan... Lowell Larry works in Traffic Enforcement and makes overtime pay writing those tickets.

No I don't. I just don't like bad drivers who either don't know the laws or don't believe they apply to them. I wish cops wrote a lot more tickets than they do.

Father and Son

Reality wrote:

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Father and Son

Mass nepotism at its finest.

Lowell Larry wrote:

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No I don't. I just don't like bad drivers who either don't know the laws or don't believe they apply to them. I wish cops wrote a lot more tickets than they do.

Our organization wishes the Lowell police did more to prevent the unacceptable number of murders, bank robberies, rapes, muggings and home robberies. It is unfortunate that we solve more crimes than they do because they are writing speeding tickets instead of protecting and serving the populace.

Crimestoppers wrote:

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Our organization wishes the Lowell police did more to prevent the unacceptable number of murders, bank robberies, rapes, muggings and home robberies. It is unfortunate that we solve more crimes than they do because they are writing speeding tickets instead of protecting and serving the populace.

Don't forget arson. Homelessness from arson is far more serious that someone rolling through a stop sign. If the state and cities want money so bad why don't they just confiscate the money and property of criminals rather than harassing motorists?

The Middlesex District Attorney's Office insists that they are the only ones who can handle civil forfeiture actions and the City Solicitor/Law Department doesn't bother to step up.

We agree that civil forfeiture needs to be more strictly enforced, but not thru the local police departments, which have been doing it without court orders. Town Counsel and City Solicitors need to get involved and take away instrumentalities of crime.

Lowell Larry wrote:

<quoted text>
Hi Susan, I don't agree. The police have visual eye contact and can decide if and when it is safe to take a step or two out. If the people are paying attention and going even close to the speed limit it is no big deal.For too many years the speed limit wasn't enforced on the connector. The more tickets issued out there now the better. They catch new dummies everyday there.
Thank God for the strict speed limit enforcement on the Lowell Connector.

Hi Larry,

I am not talking about a step or two, I am talking about walking right out into the middle of the Connector. Under no circumstances is that acceptable,or safe for the officers or the drivers.

I have no issue with speed enforcement, I do have a serious issue with the way it is done and with the ticket as a "fund raiser" concept that appears to be at the root of much of the traffic stops.

Crimestoppers wrote:

<quoted text>
Our organization wishes the Lowell police did more to prevent the unacceptable number of murders, bank robberies, rapes, muggings and home robberies. It is unfortunate that we solve more crimes than they do because they are writing speeding tickets instead of protecting and serving the populace.

Dude... you are asking too much... fighting crime is hard work... writing tickets is easy work... what do you think any smart police officer is going to do? Take on a Gang-banger or ticket a middle aged woman?

Magellan wrote:

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Don't forget arson. Homelessness from arson is far more serious that someone rolling through a stop sign. If the state and cities want money so bad why don't they just confiscate the money and property of criminals rather than harassing motorists?

"If the state and cities want more money..." why don't they just not pay boneheads $110,000 salaries and make their sons get a real job rather than feeding this "Pig" we call government....in this case the "Pig" is the legal system. It's actually scary isn't it? This is OUR LEGAL SYSTEM and what it has become.

Add to this the stupid laws which promote dragging people into court for things that could EASILY be settled outside of court. But there's the catch, when things are settled in the courts, attorney's, Judges, court personnel, prison's all justify their own existence and sadly, they make good money doing it. That's why it's bad...it will NOT stop when so many corrupt people, "making a living" work in it. They have been given too much power and they now drive the bus.

Scary times!

Amused wrote:

Seriously, what would anyone expect? A former state trooper judging the credibility of police officers vs. people who got tickets is naturally going to side with:
a) the police officer who is doing the same job he did for many years, went through the same training he did, and generally shares the same worldview.
b) the ticket recipient, who by and large offers the same explanation he heard on the side of the road thousands upon thousands of times.
It is just human nature to side on some level, probably subconsciously, with people you have a lot in common with. Most people prefer familiar things over new things. Nothing abut this story should be a surprise except that the magistrate didn't put on a better show of pretending to listen. Sometimes, life is just unfair like that.

Life is "unfair"? Maybe you didn't see my previous posts...it's not about "unfairness" it's about outright corruption. How can one guy/girl get off because "It's their lucky day".(That's a direct quote from the person it was said to.), another guy/girl who says they are a veteran gets off because the are a "Veteran", but if you go in there and bring proof of wrong doing by the police, they look at you as though "Whose this guy/gal think they are?....an attorney?". They they just shove their power in your face and make you appeal.

I'd give the police the benefit of the doubt if I were a magistrate, but when people getting stopped in the same intersection for the same thing and they are getting off because "it's their lucky day!"....it raises question as to how that innocence is determined. It has nothing to do with whether the magistrate believes the officer or not because in most cases, the officer there at the hearing never says anything regarding the details of the incident. The office who is there is typically NOT the cop who wrote the citation in the first place and THEREFORE, the magistrate SHOULD side with the testimoney of the alleged violator when that testimoney shows police wrongdoing or neglegence.

But that is CLEARLY NOT what is going on!

taylor42 wrote:

I would like to give my insight on this one particular blog and i am all for this gentleman, who stop at the stop sign...These lowell cops are real bad people they are doing what they should not be doing ...My girlfriend been in the same situation in lowell.. But now she moved..What people need to do is contact.the media to do a story on the city of lowell, including the police dept.This is one thing that these people do not like, is attention.If you really want to dig deep with this police dept.they have been doing this for years and no body was willing enough to come forward in filing complaints to seek real justice..Some of these police officers are ok and some of them are real bad..They do have Big egos and they need to treat people alot better than they have been. Just remember try to stay out of lowell, if you can it's gotten real bad..I no longer live in mass. due to these reasons of corruption and disrespect. We made a change ..don't give them your money..wake up people you all need to come together and act upon this to higher authority..

You're absolutely right! People do need to come together, EVERYONE HERE should file a complaint with the "Administrative office of the district court" and report Lisano. The police, although breaking the law to enforce the law in many cases, are doing what they are told to do to keep other cops and magistrates making 6 figure salaries employed.

I'll say it again and again...this is all about "making the system lucrative for people who work in the legal system!". This includes attorneys, judges, police, etc. They all get fed off of this corrupted method of operation and that's why unless people speak out and act, they will continue doing this....because hey...the monies good!

thomas Jefferson wrote:

<quoted text>
They do roughly 250 hearings a day. This should be public information if you call the court. But I just did a little math. 250 hearings a day X $25 each hearing is $6250.00 X 5 days a week =$31,250/week.
Now I don't know if they do them 5 days a week, call the court and find out? But if they do 5 days a week...see why they would turn a blind eye to Good Ole Billy boy!

Sorry for the typo, I meant 250-260 a week not a day! If they did 250 a day they wouldn't even let you speak!...not like they're listening anyway! lol

I bet every single one of you who think you didn't run a red light are wrong, and deserve the ticket. You stop on yellow, and have to be all the way across the intersection by the time it turns red.

I've run red lights that way and haven't been caught. I've run red lights that way and HAVE been caught. But the point is, you stop on yellow.

40+++++++++ years of driving and I got exactly one ticket for speeding an it was goung 11 (yes eleven) in a 7 (seven) zone near an aircraft flightline.

I was guilty...knew I was...paid the ticket and have never driven poorly again.

If you drive and obey the laws you won't get tickets.

Mr Innocent wrote:

It is who you know.

j amen!

I got a ticket in lowell 1 year ago and knew I didn't deserve that ticket so I filled out the back and sent it in and waited for my courtdate. Meanwhile I came back to florida and when my time came to renew my license I found out my license was suspended im Mass. When I finally got thru to someone at the courthouse in traffic court (after getting no help from the rmv office), and they couldn't find my citation and didn't know what to tell me. So, here I am 1400 miles away with no license and nobody knows what to do. They keep passing the buck. Florida court won't help me because it happened in Mass. I'm looking for a job and most jobs want you to have a license.