Speeding tickets tossed after police given pass

CASHMERE, Wash. – The Washington State Patrol is dismissing speeding tickets issued to drivers near Cashmere last Tuesday and Wednesday because as many as eight police officers blasted through a speed trap there without being cited.

The officers were headed to a drug-recognition conference in Chelan, the Wenatchee World reported. An Arlington man, Bill Gillam, recorded video showing that while other drivers were pulled over and cited for speeding through the trap, the officers were not cited.

WSP spokesman Bob Calkins said he didn’t immediately know how many tickets were issued but dismissing them is “simple fairness.”

“There weren’t many written on Wednesday because the troopers were fundamentally uncomfortable with what was going on anyway,” Calkins said. “They saw the inequity. They were still stopping people, but they gave them warnings.”

One woman was pulled over, but she was let off with a warning after she reported being the wife of a state trooper, he said.

Some of the officers who sped past were in unmarked cars, making it tough to know the agency to which they belonged. But some were with the WSP, the Auburn Police Department and the Seattle Police Department.

WSP Chief John Batiste made the decision Friday to dismiss the tickets after Gillam’s video surfaced online. The reprieve applies to anyone who got a ticket between midmorning and mid-afternoon on Tuesday or Wednesday on U.S. Highway 2/97 between Cashmere and Wenatchee.

The WSP will notify ticketed drivers about how to get their tickets voided, Calkins said. Tickets already given to a court will have to be voided by a judge, but those still in the WSP’s possession will be voided by troopers.