Teh One Who Knocks
02-17-2015, 12:27 PM
Austin Prickett, Sr. Digital Content Manager - KOKH FOX 25
http://i.imgur.com/R2panAF.jpg
(KUTV) -- To what length would you go to fight a speeding ticket?
A Utah man is going on five years and thousands of dollars.
It all stems from a day in May 2010, when Jared Brokaw got pulled over in Baker County, Oregon, going about 90 mph in a 65 zone. He was slapped with a hefty $472 ticket for speeding.
“I was going fast,” Brokaw said, “but I also thought that that was fairly excessive.”
So, he decided to do something extremely unconventional.
Brokaw decided to protest, not by refusing to pay the fine, but in using an unlikely form of payment. He took a piece of flat wood and wrote on it, as if it was a check payable to the Baker City Justice Court in the amount of $472. He boxed he board up and sent it via FedEx to Baker County.
As you can imagine, the story doesn't end there.
“They called me and they said they couldn't accept it,” Brokaw recalled. “I said, ‘Well, I'm very sorry to hear that.'”
The clerk told Brokaw he'd have to send another form of payment, but he refused. “Actually I don't,” he recalled telling the clerk. “I've met my obligation under the law unless you can prove otherwise.”
Thus began a back-and-forth that has lasted years and cost Brokaw a good deal of cash, much more than the original fine. In November 2010, Brokaw went back to Baker County for a hearing. The judge wasn't amused with his stunt.
“This is stupid. You write a check, a normal check,” Judge Gregory Baxter told Brokaw, adding that his payment on the piece of wood wouldn't fly. “This court's not going to take that.”
At that point, Brokaw said, he has decided to just pay the fine and get it over with. His attorney went to pick up the piece of wood.
“They refused to give it back, instead saying they were keeping it as a trophy,” Brokaw said.
He didn't like that, so he held off on paying the fine and started filing appeals with no success. By the end of 2012, he says he was out of options and resolved to simply not to pay the fine.
“I decided to blow it off and vowed never to set foot in Oregon again,” Brokaw said.
Then, in May of 2014, four years after he was originally pulled over, Brokaw received a notice from the state of Utah that his driver's license was about to expire.
“I made an appointment, gathered up all my paperwork and went in to renew my license,” Brokaw said. “And it was denied.”
That's because Utah knew about Brokaw's unpaid fine in Oregon, thanks to the Driver License Compact. That's essentially an information-sharing agreement between most states, including Utah, about drivers with violations or suspensions.
As a result of what happened in Oregon, Utah wouldn't renew Brokaw's license. It expired in August, and now, he can no longer legally drive.
That's where things stand today. Brokaw has also spent roughly $15,000 in legal fees so far fighting this, he said, and there's no victory in sight.
“This is the first case that I've run into this,” said George Sutton, an attorney for the Utah Bankers Association with more than 30 years of experience. He's not involved in Brokaw's case, but he said it's a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, Sutton said, it's not out of the question for someone to write a check on a piece of wood. “If I walk into my bank with a piece of wood and write out a check and say I want $100 out of my account, they have to give me $100 in cash,” he said.
But that's only at your own bank, Sutton adds. Forcing someone else to accept payment like that is another matter.
“There is no requirement I've ever seen that says any party has to accept a check in payment for anything,” Sutton said. “Think about the number of businesses out there that will not take a check.”
In Brokaw's case, he has since been ordered to pay the fine in cash. That fine remains unpaid, according to the Baker County Circuit Court.
Brokaw admits he could still pay the fine and get this over with. So, 2News asked the obvious question: why doesn't he?
“For me it's a matter of principle, not a matter of money,” Brokaw said, "I feel like I'm being criminalized as a result of just trying to stand up for my rights."
Is there a point he would decide the fight just isn't worth it?
“Maybe, but I honestly can't [see] where that point is right now,” he said. But he knows he's not there yet.
“Not by a long shot,” he said.
Brokaw is now raising money for his legal defense through social funding site IndieGogo.com.
http://i.imgur.com/R2panAF.jpg
(KUTV) -- To what length would you go to fight a speeding ticket?
A Utah man is going on five years and thousands of dollars.
It all stems from a day in May 2010, when Jared Brokaw got pulled over in Baker County, Oregon, going about 90 mph in a 65 zone. He was slapped with a hefty $472 ticket for speeding.
“I was going fast,” Brokaw said, “but I also thought that that was fairly excessive.”
So, he decided to do something extremely unconventional.
Brokaw decided to protest, not by refusing to pay the fine, but in using an unlikely form of payment. He took a piece of flat wood and wrote on it, as if it was a check payable to the Baker City Justice Court in the amount of $472. He boxed he board up and sent it via FedEx to Baker County.
As you can imagine, the story doesn't end there.
“They called me and they said they couldn't accept it,” Brokaw recalled. “I said, ‘Well, I'm very sorry to hear that.'”
The clerk told Brokaw he'd have to send another form of payment, but he refused. “Actually I don't,” he recalled telling the clerk. “I've met my obligation under the law unless you can prove otherwise.”
Thus began a back-and-forth that has lasted years and cost Brokaw a good deal of cash, much more than the original fine. In November 2010, Brokaw went back to Baker County for a hearing. The judge wasn't amused with his stunt.
“This is stupid. You write a check, a normal check,” Judge Gregory Baxter told Brokaw, adding that his payment on the piece of wood wouldn't fly. “This court's not going to take that.”
At that point, Brokaw said, he has decided to just pay the fine and get it over with. His attorney went to pick up the piece of wood.
“They refused to give it back, instead saying they were keeping it as a trophy,” Brokaw said.
He didn't like that, so he held off on paying the fine and started filing appeals with no success. By the end of 2012, he says he was out of options and resolved to simply not to pay the fine.
“I decided to blow it off and vowed never to set foot in Oregon again,” Brokaw said.
Then, in May of 2014, four years after he was originally pulled over, Brokaw received a notice from the state of Utah that his driver's license was about to expire.
“I made an appointment, gathered up all my paperwork and went in to renew my license,” Brokaw said. “And it was denied.”
That's because Utah knew about Brokaw's unpaid fine in Oregon, thanks to the Driver License Compact. That's essentially an information-sharing agreement between most states, including Utah, about drivers with violations or suspensions.
As a result of what happened in Oregon, Utah wouldn't renew Brokaw's license. It expired in August, and now, he can no longer legally drive.
That's where things stand today. Brokaw has also spent roughly $15,000 in legal fees so far fighting this, he said, and there's no victory in sight.
“This is the first case that I've run into this,” said George Sutton, an attorney for the Utah Bankers Association with more than 30 years of experience. He's not involved in Brokaw's case, but he said it's a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, Sutton said, it's not out of the question for someone to write a check on a piece of wood. “If I walk into my bank with a piece of wood and write out a check and say I want $100 out of my account, they have to give me $100 in cash,” he said.
But that's only at your own bank, Sutton adds. Forcing someone else to accept payment like that is another matter.
“There is no requirement I've ever seen that says any party has to accept a check in payment for anything,” Sutton said. “Think about the number of businesses out there that will not take a check.”
In Brokaw's case, he has since been ordered to pay the fine in cash. That fine remains unpaid, according to the Baker County Circuit Court.
Brokaw admits he could still pay the fine and get this over with. So, 2News asked the obvious question: why doesn't he?
“For me it's a matter of principle, not a matter of money,” Brokaw said, "I feel like I'm being criminalized as a result of just trying to stand up for my rights."
Is there a point he would decide the fight just isn't worth it?
“Maybe, but I honestly can't [see] where that point is right now,” he said. But he knows he's not there yet.
“Not by a long shot,” he said.
Brokaw is now raising money for his legal defense through social funding site IndieGogo.com.