Court Frowns on Ticket Doodles
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
Draw a frowny face on this Supreme Court decision.
A Portales municipal judge has been reprimanded by the New Mexico Supreme
Court for allowing police officers to describe drivers' attitudes by
drawing either a smiley face or a frowny face on their traffic tickets.
No allegation was made that Municipal Judge Frederick Arnold gave stiffer
penalties to defendants who were depicted with frowns or that he gave
breaks to defendants whose frowns were turned upside down.
In fact, he ordered fines slightly more often for tickets marked with
smiles and dismissed slightly more tickets marked with frowns.
But the state's Judicial Standards Commission and the Supreme Court agreed
that allowing officers to draw the faces on the judge's copy of traffic
tickets amounted to a one-sided communication between the officers and the
judge — something that is not allowed under the law.
The Supreme Court has found Arnold guilty of willful misconduct in office,
reprimanded him and assigned a retired Portales judge to counsel him on the
laws that govern judges' behavior.
Meanwhile, the practice of drawing faces on traffic tickets in Portales, a
town of about 12,000 people on the New Mexico's east-central plains, ended
more than a year ago.
Portales Police Capt. Lonnie Berry said the practice involved only a few,
mostly younger officers, and began several years ago before Arnold was
appointed judge.
The officers drew the faces only on the copy of the ticket that went to the
court and did it to let the judge know whether the driver had been
cooperative or belligerent during the traffic stop, Berry said.
"It wasn't like they followed up with him and said, 'Hey, did you hammer
the guy I gave the frowny face to?' '' Berry said. "But they expected it
was happening."
Arnold did not return telephone calls seeking comment. But according to the
lawyer who defended him in disciplinary proceedings, there was no evidence
that Arnold paid any attention to the drawings or allowed them to influence
his penalties.
"No favoritism, bias, prejudice or influence has been alleged to exist in
any of the judicial determinations" made by Arnold, attorney William Greig
wrote in Arnold's response to the allegations.
Portales police were able to find 24 of the marked tickets when they began
to look into the matter. Of those, 14 had frowns and 10 had smiles. Half
the frown tickets were dismissed and half resulted in fines. Four of the
smile tickets were dismissed and six resulted in fines.
|