O.C. Cops Guilty of Conspiring to Dismiss Woman's Parking Ticket

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O.C. cops guilty of conspiring to dismiss woman's traffic ticket

December 6, 2012 |  6:44 pm

Jurors on Thursday convicted two Orange County police officers of conspiring to dismiss a traffic ticket given to a woman driver who promised one of them “a bunch of alcohol” in exchange for his help.
Erik Michael Krause, 44, a 22-year veteran of the Huntington Beach police, and Garden Grove Officer Michael John Zannitto, 47, were found guilty of misdemeanor conspiracy to obstruct justice. They could face up to a year in jail when they are sentenced next month.
Prosecutors say Krause ticketed a woman for speeding near a school bus Nov. 9, 2011. Later that month, Zannitto met the woman at Knott’s Berry Farm while off duty after learning she worked in the alcohol industry. The officer told the woman he could have her citation dismissed, prosecutors said. Officials say Zannitto instructed the woman to send him a picture of the citation and told her how to contest the ticket. She sent him the ticket and promised free alcohol in exchange for a dismissal, prosecutors said.
In January, prosecutors said, Zannitto called the Huntington Beach police and said the woman was his sister and asked to speak with the officer who issued the ticket.
Zannitto talked with Krause, who promised to “take care of” the ticket, according to prosecutors. Zannitto then texted the woman that the ticket would be taken care of, prosecutors said.

“Please dismiss in the interest of justice. No notes,” Krause wrote on his declaration, according to the district attorney's office.  A Huntington Beach police lieutenant initiated the investigation, but the district attorney’s office said that because Krause’s declaration was never filed with the court, the woman’s $234 ticket was dismissed.

Physics did not get Krioukov out of ticket

April 20, 2012 1:10 PM

Judge: Physics did not get Krioukov out of ticket

By

Bailey Johnson

Topics

Dmitri Krioukov

(Credit: Dmitri Krioukov)

 

(CBS News/AP) A San Diego court commissioner is denying that a scientist's physics paper had anything to do with her dismissing his $200 traffic ticket. CBSNews.com reported this week that Dmitri Krioukov of the University of California, San Diego, used an equation-filled paper on the physics of a car in motion to successfully appeal a ticket for failure to stop.

As it turns out, all those pages of post-grad mathematics weren't even necessary.

Superior Court Commissioner Karen Riley told U-T San Diego that she listened to the physics argument but much of it went over her head.

"The ruling was not based on his physics explanation," Riley told the San Diego paper. "It was based on the officer's view ... The officer wasn't close enough to the intersection to have a good view."
Even the $400 fine was hyperbole, according to the commissioner.

"He's exaggerating," she told U-T San Diego. "It never would've been $400. Even if he had traffic school, it would've been $287."

Krioukov was unavailable for comment, but is still probably happy to be out of a fine - physics or no physics.

Physicist claims victory over traffic ticket with physics paper

By Justin Hyde | Motoramic – Thu, Apr 12, 2012 11:18 AM EDT

A physicist at the University of California San Diego used his knowledge of measuring bodies in motion to show in court why he couldn't be guilty of a ticket for failing to halt at a stop sign. The argument, now a four-page paper delving into the differences between angular and linear motion, supposedly got the physicist out of a $400 ticket. If you want to use this excuse, you'll have to learn a little math -- and some powers of persuasion.

The paper by Dmitri Krioukov titled "The Proof of Innocence," notes in the abstract that it's "a way to fight your traffic tickets," and was "awarded a special prize of $400 that the author did not have to pay to the state of California." (It's also posted with a date of April 1, so downloader beware.) Krioukov claims he was approaching a stop sign in his Toyota Yaris when a police officer saw him roll through the intersection, apparently without stopping, and pulled him over. Case closed — except that Krioukov says he was able to show a confluence of events that only made it seem he hadn't stopped.
First, the officer was watching the stop sign saw Krioukov's car from the side, distorting his idea of how fast Krioukov was traveling before the stop. At the stop sign itself, Krioukov contended he had stopped — but the officer's view was briefly blocked by a passing car. When Krioukov started again, the officer's sense of Krioukov's speed made it seem he had never stopped at all.
Krioukov told PhysicsCentral that the case and his argument were real, but that he left a flaw in his work for others to find, and sure enough a few commenters found the Yaris-based defect quickly. Leave it to a physicist to create an explanation that ends with people doubting whether the problem explained actually existed at all.