More Traffic Ticket Fiasco

From the Town of Woodbury: JUDGES OBJECT TO TRAFFIC-TICKET PLEA BARGAIN BAN:

Dave Levinson and Ray Shoemaker are about as different as two people can be without coming from different planets.

They're both judges, and that's where the comparisons end. Levinson is a Brooklyn-born Democrat and a partner in a locally prominent law firm. Shoemaker is a Republican, a retired Middletown cop, a guy who has never been to law school.

But they've found common ground on a controversial issue: Both judges have a beef with the new state police policy that bans troopers from plea-bargaining traffic tickets. And now, Levinson is speaking up to defend Shoemaker's decision to dismiss 70 tickets on Sept. 8, in spite of state guidelines that frown on judges being outspoken anywhere besides in their own courtrooms.

Levinson sees people bewildered by what he calls "patch-sleeve justice."

Here's what he means: More than one police agency writes tickets in the Town of Woodbury. So if Driver A gets a speeding ticket from a state trooper, Driver A has two choices: Plead guilty, pay a fine and wait for a rate-hike notice from their insurance carrier. Or roll the dice and go to trial.

But if Driver B gets a speeding ticket in Woodbury, and Driver B's ticket was written by someone wearing the uniform patch of the Woodbury town police, the state park police or an Orange County sheriff's deputy, Driver B has more options than Driver A. Driver B has a shot at plea-bargaining for a ticket that won't put points on his license or jack up his insurance rates.

"Patch-sleeve justice — that's what it is," Levinson said this week. "We're not treating people equally."