Try Fear - By James Scott Bell Page 0,16

person may not operate a motor vehicle on a highway unless that person and all passengers sixteen years of age or over are properly restrained by a safety belt.’ I emphasize the last word, Your Honor. Belt.”

Judge Solomon peered over her glasses. “Yes?”

“Nowhere in the statute is the term belt defined by the legislature, thus leaving it to common sense and common understanding. A belt is a strap placed across one’s lap, keeping one’s rear end in contact with a seat.”

Kimberly Pincus, sharp little tack that she was, stood up. “Your Honor,” she said. “I see where this is going. This is crazy, and—”

“Ms. Pincus,” the judge said, “please sit down and do not speak again unless you have a valid objection. I want to hear Mr. Buchanan out. This is nothing if not creative.”

“Does Your Honor have a dictionary handy?” I said.

“Right here,” Judge Solomon said. She took a volume and opened it up. Turned the pages.

Each page seemed to be a stake to the heart of Kimberly Pincus.

The judge stopped, then read. “ ‘Belt. A flexible band, as of leather or cloth, worn around the waist to support clothing, secure tools or weapons, or serve as decoration.’ ”

“Around the waist,” I said.

“Interesting,” Judge Solomon said.

“I object,” Kimberly Pincus said.

“Overruled,” said the judge.

“But you haven’t heard—”

“Overruled, Ms. Pincus. Continue, Mr. Buchanan.”

I wanted this to last forever. I flipped a few pages in the vehicle code and said, “I can well understand the frustration of the prosecution, but allow me to turn to another section of the vehicle code, Section 27314.5(a)(1). Here the legislature prescribes a warning for used-car dealers which reads as follows. ‘Warning. While use of all seat belts reduces the chance of ejection, failure to install and use shoulder harnesses with lap belts can result in serious or fatal injuries.’ What this shows, Your Honor, is that the legislature distinguishes between belts and shoulder harnesses. In other words, they knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote seat belts.”

“Fascinating,” Judge Solomon said with a smile.

“Officer Caldwell said he saw no shoulder strap on my client, and that’s why he stopped him. But there was no probable cause to stop Mr. Richess, because he could very well have been in compliance with the seat belt law by wearing a lap belt. In other words, there was no crime committed in the officer’s presence. No crime, illegal stop. Everything Officer Caldwell observed afterward was fruit of the poisonous tree.”

I love that phrase. It comes from an old Supreme Court case. It basically means if an illegal action by the cop leads to the incriminating evidence, that evidence is tainted. And therefore cannot be considered in court.

“Well done, Mr. Buchanan,” Judge Solomon said.

“May I respond now?” Ms. Pincus said.

“You may.”

“This is ridiculous. The term belt obviously has several different meanings.”

“Do you have a dictionary, Ms. Pincus?”

“No.”

“Then you are making a claim without a citation.”

Seam. Bursting. “Your Honor, please! At the very least, the term is ambiguous.”

“If I may?” I said.

“Yes, Mr. Buchanan?” the judge said.

“I have already shown that the legislature was very careful in choosing its terms. But even if we were to concede Ms. Pincus’s point, that the term is ambiguous, the Keeler case controls. It held that when a statute is susceptible to two reasonable constructions, it shall be construed favorably to the defendant.”

You could have cut the silence with Kimberly Pincus’s tongue. Ms. Pincus herself was speechless. She shook her head disbelievingly, like a teenager who’s just been told she can’t drive the car tonight.

“Give me just a moment,” Judge Solomon said. She took off her glasses and scratched her chin with one of the stems.

She was thinking about it. She was really thinking about it.

I wanted to dance.

Once, I had danced on a fancy conference table in a fancy law office, because I was hacked off at the stuffed sausage of a lawyer sitting across from me. That almost cost me my license, but it was worth it.

But I stayed seated. The dancing would come later. And it would come, because Judge Solomon, bless her heart, said the following.

“In the matter of the People of the State of California versus Carl Richess, I am going to grant the 1538.5 motion. The warrantless stop of the car was not justified, for the reasons so ably given by counsel. Therefore, all of the observations subsequent to the stop are fruit of the poisonous tree. The observations, the field sobriety tests, and the breath test results are