Owners of used Lincoln models in New Jersey may be interested in a two-year long court case involving a 2006 Navigator.
On October 7, 2007, Daniel Freitag was issued a speeding ticket by Ohio patrolmen Ken Roth. The officer had measured the suspect’s speed on his radar gun at between 42 and 45 miles per hour in a 35 zone, but that piece of evidence was thrown out on appeal due to the fact that the state did not identify the specific model of detection equipment that was used, according to TheNewspaper.com.
Still, the case was not dismissed because Roth claimed that he could hear the Navigator driving too fast, even though the incident occurred on a traffic-filled road over 150 yards away from his patrol car, AOL.com reports.
“As it approached I could hear the vehicle on the roadway which based on my training and experience, it is consistent with a vehicle that was in excess of the posted speed limit,” the officer testified.
With Roth’s testimony being the only piece of admissible evidence remaining, the court found Freitag guilty for a second time. Amazed, he appealed for a third trial.
This time, nearly two years after the incident occurred, the appeals court judge sided with Freitag, calling the previous two trials a “miscarriage of justice.”
“The weight of the evidence does not support the conclusion that Freitag was exceeding the posted speed limit, specifically because Patrolman Roth’s testimony that he audibly…determined that Freitag was speeding is not credible,” said Judge Donna Carr.
“It is simply incredible in the absence of reliable scientific, technical or other specialized information, to believe that one could hear an unidentified vehicle ‘speeding’ without being able to determine the actual speed of the vehicle,” she added.
Used Lincoln owners in New Jersey may be able to rest a little easier knowing the fact one cannot get arrested for ‘sounding’ too fast.