(Thanks to Camerafraud for the link!)

http://www.thestate.com/2011/08/22/1942295/ridgeland-battling-speed-camera.html

Ridgeland battling speed-camera lawsuit
By PATRICK DONOHUE
 
RIDGELAND — Ridgeland might have pulled the plug on its Interstate-95 speed-camera program months ago, but the legal battle over the town’s use of the now-outlawed technology isn’t slowing down.

Attorneys for Ridgeland and iTraffic, the company that helped deploy the cameras, are again asking U.S. District Judge Sol Blatt to dismiss a federal class-action lawsuit filed last year by a Columbia attorney representing three drivers ticketed by Ridgeland police, according to federal court records.

In a filing late last month, Ridgeland’s attorney, Timothy Domin of Charleston, asked that Blatt issue a summary judgment in the town’s favor after speeding tickets against the three drivers listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were dismissed by a municipal judge June 1, according to the motion.

   
 
Domin claimed dismissing the tickets put the motorists in the same legal category as several other plaintiffs Blatt dismissed from the lawsuit in May because they had already paid their tickets or had their tickets dismissed, according to court records.

The drivers’ attorney, Pete Strom of Charleston, countered that the dismissals do not “provide plaintiffs with a remedy for the financial damage that each plaintiff incurred,” citing attorney’s fees as an example of their expenses.

Blatt has not ruled on Ridgeland’s motion.

Ridgeland drew the ire of some state legislators and drivers last year when it deployed the camera system along I-95, shortly after they passed a law aimed at limiting the use of such cameras to emergencies.

Ridgeland officials claimed the law applies only to the use of unmanned cameras — their cameras were attended remotely by a police officer in a nearby RV.

State lawmakers passed another law this past June outlawing speeding tickets based on photographic evidence. It also requires officers to hand-deliver speeding tickets to accused speeders. Ridgeland officials subsequently pulled the plug on the program.

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