Fairfax County tickets cars while they wait for inspection for not having an inspection. This habit is pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel.
According to the Washington Post (Tom Jackman):
Bruce Redwine had seen enough. After years of watching a Fairfax County parking enforcement officer slap tickets on his customers’ cars for expired tags or inspection stickers, usually as the cars were awaiting state inspection or repair at his Chantilly shop, he snatched the latest ticket out of Officer Jacquelyn D. Hogue’s hand and added some profane commentary on top.
Hogue responded by having Redwine arrested for felony assault on a police officer, though she is not a police officer. And when the case first went to court, a Fairfax judge sentenced Redwine to four days in jail.
Redwine appealed, got a jury trial last month and was acquitted within minutes. But the bitterness he feels at having to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees, plus being booked, fingerprinted and photographed at the county jail, with no prior record, is shared by numerous fellow auto repair operators at the Mariah Business Center on Sullyfield Circle off Route 28.
They don’t understand why Fairfax police have zealously sought to enforce laws on expired tags or inspections, mainly on drivers who are making the effort to get their cars into compliance, while on private property. Hogue’s appearance in the industrial park often set off a scramble to hide customers’ cars inside the shops, the shop owners said.
“They’re harassing the small businesses trying to make it in this tough economy,” said Ray Barrera of A&H Equipment Repair. He estimated that his customers’ vehicles had been hit with $60,000 worth of fines and fees over the past six years.
The offending officer is parking enforcement Officer Jacqueline Hogue who we might note is not a LEO, she is parking enforcement. Some folks might call her a meter maid. Others might call her even worse.
At best this “enforcement” constitutes harassment of both business owners and their customers. It is akin to shooting fish in a barrel since the customers must have inspections and they must have inspections at authorized shops. This same meter maid would be the type to go sit at the bar with the customers, follow them out to their car and arrest them for DWI when they started their engines.
Fairfax County needs to expunge Mr. Redwines’s records, reimburse him for his legal fees, and fire “Officer” Hogue. She is a bully and basically lazy. Shame, shame, shame on Fairfax County. Bet Chief Hudson (chief, PWC) wouldn’t allow this nonsense to happen on his watch.
Suggestion: read the entire link….it will make you have steam coming out of your ears. Definitely overkill and police over-reach.
I can’t believe some enterprising lawyer isn’t already chomping at the bit, not only to defend Redwine, but get a class action suit against parking enforcement and the county.
I am too. That situation is almost unbelievable. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I read. Perhaps Fairfax County thinks it is too big to fail.
This isn’t the first time Fairfax county has done something like this. Several years ago, officers were entering bars and restaurants, making people submit to breathalyzers and ticketing them for public intoxication if they blew .09 or over. They claimed it was to limit drunk driving, but the claim fell apart when the media got involved, and found several of those ticketed were accompanied by a sober driver, or had walked to the establishment, and would have walked home. It also seemed that certain establishments received this LEO attention, while others did not, which angered the owners of those that were targeted.
I have to ask, is the expired sticker itself the violation, or the operation of a vehicle with an expired sticker that is the offense? Could you be ticketed in your driveway?
Good question, Steve. In Prince William, if you have a car cover on a vehicle in your driveway, I don’t think anyone can come lift it up to look. I remember that from immigration days. I guess I feel two ways about this. I don’t want to live in a junk yard. On the other hand, I am sure there are people saving up money to have a car pass inspection. Sometimes cars fizzle out when you least expect it or can afford it.
Oh the other hand, I have had kids think they were going to keep a car in my driveway much longer than I wanted it there. I would have welcomed ticketing on a car or two I can think of. Today I would say NO to anyone parking in my driveway. Those rascals have fooled me enough.
The story you tell is horrible!!! I would be enraged if I was the customer or the proprietor. I would have refused to be breathalyzed. Guess I would be in Fairfax jail.
@Steve Thomas
Operation of vehicle with an expired sticker is the offense. Details at: http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title46.2/chapter10/article21/
I would basically say the sticker is the physical, visable indicator of complying with the law. You can’t be ticketed in your driveway for having an expired sticker; although if you parked on a public street and the LEO sees it, you can be ticketed.
Moon mentioned car covers. Most Local Governments have the ordinance that says if the car is unregistered or has expired State registration, it can be parked in your driveway but must have a cover. You can be cited under local zoning laws if you fail to comply.
I have read too many stories about Fairfax County police abuses and bad behavior to ever cross its border without a really good reason. When I commuted (years ago), I remember checkpoints set up to harass folks driving to work over expired inspection stickers.
Not a fan. We are lucky to have a police department in PWC which is above such nonsense and bad behavior in general.
I agree about our professional police department. My sources also tell me that our ADC is also far better than the ADC in Fairfax Co.
A pertinent part of the article appears to be this:
Fairfax police said they are only on the property because of a letter issued by Mariah’s property management firm in 2009, specifically granting police permission to enforce county traffic, parking and towing ordinances.
“Why aren’t they barking up their property manager’s tree?” asked Lt. Brooke Wright, a Fairfax police spokeswoman. “That is their business. Without that letter, we have no authority — none — to be in that parking lot.”
Let’s go bqck to the four days in jail BS. What is that about? That sounds to me that Fairfax has a judicial system that is failing, not serving the public and places the judge and the judicial system itself in question. Who would do that, what is his/her name?
Call Tom Jackman and ask him. I bet he as the info and he is very responsive to PWC folks.
Al: You and I must have taken different routes into and out of Fairfax County. I worked in the County for over 30 years and commuted every day. That equals around 100,000+ trips. I was never stopped by Fairfax Police for any kind of checks or harassment. @Al
I’ve lived in the NoVa area since 1966 and have only been stopped in two roadblocks – once in PWC (cops checking for expired tags) and once in Arlington (cops checking for drunks coming back from Georgetown on a Saturday night).
My mother was stopped by Fx. Co. cops for having a tag that was at least a month expired. Duh! She got no ticket but the cop followed her to a repair shop that did inspections. I think there’s more to this story – probably complaints about cars or messiness.
You have been here longer than I have!!!
They do enforcement on Route 7 bi-monthly it seems. When cars get backed up it becomes easy pickings to flag expired license and inspection over to a turn lane for write-up.
I think these tickets should be done by mail instead of causing traffic backups. When the correspondence has been ignored then a traffic stop can occur. At least on Rt 7 it is a parking lot anyway so it is one of the safer traffic stops.
@Censored bybvbl
Censored, one would hsve to be a regular commuter to notice. Route 123, northbound, rush hour, mornings, between I66 & Tysons corner.
And on eastbound 50 just before the stoplight on Annandale Road.
Hogue is known for attempting to instigate people into physical reactions (and, if not achieved, she lies) in order to file assault charges.
If you do a quick search in VA Courts online, you’ll find an entire list of Hogue’s relatives with criminal convictions and civil debts (including Hogue herself) in Fairfax County as well as Prince William County.
In July 2015, one judgment awarded against Jacquelyn D. Hogue was in the Principal Amount of $15,347.17 plus costs (PWC Case Number : GV15008122-00) and she was charged with writing bad checks. There are more.
This bears the question of whether Hogue is financially profiting from the abuse of her position as an “officer” with Fairfax County Police in order to clear her debts or is she a criminal scamming the public along with her creditors, or both.
While Mr. Redwine has incurred the trauma and public shame of being arrested and the subsequent debt to prove his innocence, Hogue is collecting a salary, bonuses, and support from Fairfax County with impunity ~ this is truly CRIMINAL.
If your allegations are correct, it sounds like she needs to be terminated immediately. I doubt if she would pass muster in PWC.
Totally true. She should have been fired many years ago but FCPD protects these criminals.
… mealy-mouthed, do-nothing, say-nothing members of the county Board of Supervisors (BOS) are characteristically, malfeasantly quiet regarding this latest FCPD scandal. The BOS are enablers of the worst order, using the vast resources of the state to protect the police department from experiencing the consequences of its actions.
As for county residents, we’re left to continue watching a police department in free fall with no rock bottom in sight.
— Quoted from Dave Statter
You need Charlie Deane to come clean the place up, it sounds like. I don’t think Chief Hudson would tolerate that either.