I have long been aware of the notariety of the “Stanfield Speed Trap” and usually take the long, expensive way around to get to Hermiston. On this one rare occasion I took a chance as I Would have had to back track a distance to go around. So I began driving at 45MPM, ten under the speed limit, all the way to Stanfield. When I passed the 45MPH ahead sign I was going 45 when I passed the 45MPH sign I was doing 45. When I got to the speed reduced ahead sign I took my foot off the throttle and coasted to a point approximatly 130 feet befor the 30 MPH sign I braked to thirty and under. Shortly after this the patrolman pulled me over and said I was going 47 in a 30. He gave me a citation for going 48 in a thirty. Of course I have to plead not guilty. After the initial appearance I enlisted an attorney.

The attorney requested the disclosure which describes the policeman’s description of the violation cited. In this declaration, by the citing officer, he claims that he stopped me in town more than a mile from where he initially spotted me – actually the other side of where he stopped me. He claimed that this is where he clocked me with a radar gun going 48MPH and that he stopped me another two blocks past that point. All of this being a pure and deliberate fabrication.

My attorney advised me that no way would the court in Stanfield believe my story over their officer’s story. That the smart thing to do is cop a plea to a lesser offence and pay a fine to avoid a speeding offence being added to my driving record. So I pleaded guilty to not having my registration in the car and paid a $142 fine. Of which not having a registraion in the vehicle in Oregon is not a finable offense. Plus the lawyers fee of $500 the incident cost me $642 nearly all of my monthly social security check.

It is my advice to all to stay out of Stanfield because they consider it their right to hold anyone they do not recognise up and elicit funds to suport their litttle bureaucracy. The law and right and wrong have nothing to do with any of it. It is all about the money. My attorney’s words.