Hello All,
A Kentucky woman, Cherokee Schill, is currently in jail for riding her bicycle in the travel lane.
It should be noted that Kentucky vehicle code has some differences from California.
She commutes about 18 miles each way.
http://www.centralkynews.com/...01-001a4bcf6878.html
A Nicholasville woman who just lost a court battle over three tickets she received while commuting to Lexington on her bicycle was arrested Tuesday evening.
Cherokee Schill, 41, was arrested by the Nicholasville Police Department on charges of second-degree wanton endangerment and booked into the Jessamine County Detention Center just after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Nicholasville police officer Erik Cobb arrested Schill around 5 p.m. on U.S. 27. The arrest citation stated that Schill was “engaging in conduct she knew would create a substantial danger to other motorists attempting to avoid her.” Community-relations officer Kevin Grimes said the citation also stated that several vehicles were “taking evasive action to avoid striking (Schill).”
Schill is scheduled to appear in court Thursday at 8:30 a.m.
Schill has received five tickets in Jessamine County this year during her commute on U.S. 27, which often causes traffic issues that authorities have said are dangerous to the cyclist and other vehicles. Schill was in court Friday to contest three of those tickets — one of them given to her by Cobb, who arrested her Tuesday — but the judge ruled against her after a nine-hour trial.
Regarding an appeal her attorney writes:
"Thinking that the court "errors" is a bad way to the think. Having spent many hours in court with Cherokee the trial, and having spent many hours researching & Preparing for the trial, I do not believe there are appealable errors. The Court of Appeals cannot rethink the trial. Court of Appeals is required to accept the facts as found by the trial court. This Means to court's finding that the shoulder was acceptable for riding a bicycle is a matter of fact which cannot be reversed on appeal.
It might be argued that such a finding was against the weight of the evidence or was not supported by the evidence. Here officers were all asked and all testified that the shoulder was fine for bicycling. The level of their qualifications doesn't really matter. Our experts provided testimony relative to the dangers of shoulder riding. However there is no rule that the court must pick an expert, who was not at the scene of the incident, over the officer, who was. Cherokee did not have a camera rolling. However she did return and snap a couple pictures of debris from one of the Stops. The officers testified that the debris was not in the area in which he was riding at the time she was cited. In fact the officer testified that had she been cycling on the road in order to get around that particular debris he would not have citedin first place. Unfortunately, another cyclist came up to the scene, pedaling through the minefield of debris.
The Selz case the appeal was carefully considered. It was not done willy-nilly. I consulted with a friend of mine would clerked for the particular Court of Appeals question. And I was able to obtain some general "leanings" of each of the five members of the court. Three of those members would be assigned to the case randomly. We would not find out until the day of whorl argument which three would hear the case. After considering the various options we felt we had a good shot, on the law, and a pretty good shot of getting a decent panel to hear the appeal. As it was, we had the most conservative juror, the most "outdoorsy" one and a judge in the middle. We won a 2 to 1 decision in the Selz case, with the dissenter holding that he would've found Steve guilty of impeding traffic."
------------------------
Steve Magas
The Magas Firm
7733 Beechmont Ave., Suite 210
Cincinnati, OH 45255
"mailto:BikeLawyer@me.com" BikeLawyer@me.com 513-484-BIKE (2453)
Sent on the run from my iPhone
Cheers,
Neal
+1 mph Faster
A Kentucky woman, Cherokee Schill, is currently in jail for riding her bicycle in the travel lane.
It should be noted that Kentucky vehicle code has some differences from California.
She commutes about 18 miles each way.
http://www.centralkynews.com/...01-001a4bcf6878.html
A Nicholasville woman who just lost a court battle over three tickets she received while commuting to Lexington on her bicycle was arrested Tuesday evening.
Cherokee Schill, 41, was arrested by the Nicholasville Police Department on charges of second-degree wanton endangerment and booked into the Jessamine County Detention Center just after 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Nicholasville police officer Erik Cobb arrested Schill around 5 p.m. on U.S. 27. The arrest citation stated that Schill was “engaging in conduct she knew would create a substantial danger to other motorists attempting to avoid her.” Community-relations officer Kevin Grimes said the citation also stated that several vehicles were “taking evasive action to avoid striking (Schill).”
Schill is scheduled to appear in court Thursday at 8:30 a.m.
Schill has received five tickets in Jessamine County this year during her commute on U.S. 27, which often causes traffic issues that authorities have said are dangerous to the cyclist and other vehicles. Schill was in court Friday to contest three of those tickets — one of them given to her by Cobb, who arrested her Tuesday — but the judge ruled against her after a nine-hour trial.
Regarding an appeal her attorney writes:
"Thinking that the court "errors" is a bad way to the think. Having spent many hours in court with Cherokee the trial, and having spent many hours researching & Preparing for the trial, I do not believe there are appealable errors. The Court of Appeals cannot rethink the trial. Court of Appeals is required to accept the facts as found by the trial court. This Means to court's finding that the shoulder was acceptable for riding a bicycle is a matter of fact which cannot be reversed on appeal.
It might be argued that such a finding was against the weight of the evidence or was not supported by the evidence. Here officers were all asked and all testified that the shoulder was fine for bicycling. The level of their qualifications doesn't really matter. Our experts provided testimony relative to the dangers of shoulder riding. However there is no rule that the court must pick an expert, who was not at the scene of the incident, over the officer, who was. Cherokee did not have a camera rolling. However she did return and snap a couple pictures of debris from one of the Stops. The officers testified that the debris was not in the area in which he was riding at the time she was cited. In fact the officer testified that had she been cycling on the road in order to get around that particular debris he would not have citedin first place. Unfortunately, another cyclist came up to the scene, pedaling through the minefield of debris.
The Selz case the appeal was carefully considered. It was not done willy-nilly. I consulted with a friend of mine would clerked for the particular Court of Appeals question. And I was able to obtain some general "leanings" of each of the five members of the court. Three of those members would be assigned to the case randomly. We would not find out until the day of whorl argument which three would hear the case. After considering the various options we felt we had a good shot, on the law, and a pretty good shot of getting a decent panel to hear the appeal. As it was, we had the most conservative juror, the most "outdoorsy" one and a judge in the middle. We won a 2 to 1 decision in the Selz case, with the dissenter holding that he would've found Steve guilty of impeding traffic."
------------------------
Steve Magas
The Magas Firm
7733 Beechmont Ave., Suite 210
Cincinnati, OH 45255
"mailto:BikeLawyer@me.com" BikeLawyer@me.com 513-484-BIKE (2453)
Sent on the run from my iPhone
Cheers,
Neal
+1 mph Faster