FENWICK ISLAND
1984
SPEED TRAP
Abstract from the Arizona
Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona, Ed Severson's column, 16 February,
1984, titled. 'Fenwick
Island Delaware Could Go Bankrupt'.
Fenwick Island, a 'spot' on
the map, population 125 people , isn't the kind of place that makes
national news. It's at the southeastern tip of Delaware just before
you go into Maryland. The only reason most people pay attention to
it is because its on a 'short cut' Baltimore people use to get to
Maryland's beaches to get out of snarling traffic.
The Wall Street Journal,
calls it a 'speed trap'. Catching 'speeders' is one of it's big
sources
of income. A few years ago
it was learned that the town officials actually 'planned on'
raising $40,000
of the annual budget by
'speeders', with fines from $35 to $50.
However, among the
hundreds of motorist the Fenwick Island police ticketed was Abraham
P. Korotiki, a Baltimore
Maryland lawyer. Korutki was the wrong person to ticket. He sued
At court he said he wasn't
speeding, he was followed into Maryland before he was stopped,
wasent even in Delaware and besides, the cop had pointed his gun at
a passenger in the car. It came out in court who Fenwick town
officials 'planned' on picking off motorist to the tune of $40,000.
Korotki's story was so
persuasive the the Federal Court jury that heard the case, awarded
$100,000 in punitive
damages and another $10,000 to pay legal fees. In addition the
police chief
was found liable for $2500
because the jury did not like the way he allowed his cops to chase
drivers across state lines.
You can see the possible financial ruin of Fenwick Island lies
ahead.
There is one popular way to
'trap' speeders to obtain a nice supply of them, that is, place the
highway speed of 55 mph sigh along the road, just 20 yards before
the town speed limit sign of 25
mph, the sign the town cops
hides behind.
To make a set up like this
pay off big, a lot of speeders has to be caught. At $35 or $50 a
ticket,
to earn $40,000 , you need
800 speeders at least. It's easy to imagine that Fenwick Island has
been picking off a lot of people who did not deserve tickets.
Average people, working people, who do not have the resource to
defend themselves.
Picture this guy, sweating
on the job all week, now caught in bumper to bumper traffic , trying
to get the wife and kids,
now at the snarling point, to the beach, now fishing through his
wallet for his license, finds he has to pay the $50 he has saved for
a good dinner, going to this godforsaken place, for a bogus
speeding ticket.
A legal lynching” cried
the Fenwick Island lawyer to the $10,000 legal fee award to Korotki .
The lawyer could be right, it sounds like the Fenwick Island town
officials know as much about legal lynching as does anyone else in
America. Fenwick Island now has a big problem. There is not much to
the town, alderman's court, police station, two police cars. The
Federal court judgment may well exceed the towns assets.
The Baltimore judge was
asked to throwout the award, but Korotki said he would be
disappointed, and said he would fight it. That does not look like
it would be too hard to do.
Korotki would wipe this
place right off the maps.
Absract: Harrison Howeth,
Lewes, De.. July 16 2017.
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