New York - Trooper-Brokered Deals on Speeding Tickets End

New York - Gov. George Pataki used his veto pen to end the practice of state troopers plea-bargaining speeding tickets with motorists.

Pataki overturned a bill passed by the Legislature that would have blocked the implementation of new rules state police adopted in last spring to end plea bargaining.
In his veto message, Pataki said, "The responsibility for prosecuting crimes, including (speeding) crimes, has always been a responsibility of local district attorneys," and should remain that way.

But Rockland County District Attorney Michael Bongiorno, who also is president of the state District Attorneys Association, said the result could be a "big mess." "Right now, we're just not geared to be doing this," he said.
The head of the state Association of Towns also criticized Pataki's veto. "This is going to have a financial impact on the towns in New York state," said Jeffrey Haber, the organization's executive director. "The towns are going to have to provide prosecutors and the cost of that has to be met."

Troopers wrote 873,000 traffic tickets last year, 354,000 of which were for speeding, according to the state police. That's 43 percent of all speeding tickets written in the state.
But the old system had serious problems, a lawyer for the state police said in a letter to district attorneys in March. "We believe there is an inherent outward appearance of unfairness and duress when a motorist is forced to plea-bargain his or her case with the arresting officer, the very same officer who stands as his or her accuser and is also the primary prosecution witness," wrote the lawyer, Glenn Valle.
Drivers typically have used the current system to avoid getting "points" on their licenses, which can result in loss of driving privileges and higher insurance rates. Prosecutors use the system to move cases quickly through the courts. The process also has been a source of overtime pay for state troopers.
The system took effect on Sept. 1, and results have been mixed, said Matthew Weiss, a Manhattan lawyer who works on traffic cases in the Lower Hudson Valley.