Ticketing fight favors Henderson

A rather elaborate attempt to contest a traffic ticket failed to result in a dismissal of charges for Mark Anthony Thomas in the 16th Judicial District Court.
Judge Gerard B. Wattigny ruled that Thomas was correct in maintaining that his payment of the $213 fine did not constitute an admission of guilt as the town of Henderson contended but the rest if his case did not fare as well.
Thomas, through his attorney, W. Glenn Soileau, sought to have the charges dropped on the basis of two theories. First, that the town of Henderson had operated on a “quota system” requiring officers to write a certain number of tickets per day, which Thomas maintained to constitute misconduct; and secondly that the location in which the ticket was written, the I-10 bridge, is not within the jurisdiction of the town’s police.
These contentions both failed on the grounds that the time has expired for these to be heard by the court.
The I-10 corridor was annexed by Henderson for jurisdictional purposes in 2005, giving the municipality the power to write tickets in the area in question. The annexation could only have been contested in this way for a period of five years, so time ran out eight years ago and the court could not consider this aspect of the case.
Similarly, Judge Wattigny ruled that Thomas was too late to contest on the basis of alleged police misconduct in the form of quotas, which must be brought within a period of one year, so the charges and the fine both stand.