Hash brown patty or phone? Driver says Connecticut cop mistook one for the other
A Connecticut police officer says he spotted Jason Stiber chatting on his phone behind the wheel in April, WTNH reports.
But Stiber says the officer mistook a hash brown patty from McDonald’s for a phone, WABC reports. So far, he’s spent $1,000 fighting a $300 distracted driving ticket trying to prove it, according to the TV station.
On Friday, Stiber argued his case again in Norwalk Superior Court at a retrial he requested after a magistrate judge found him guilty in August, The Times-Union reported.
The judge in the retrial will consider the evidence, including phone records that Stiber’s attorney says show he was not on a call at the time, and issue a ruling in April, WABC reported.
Cpl. Shawn Wong Won of the Westport Police Department pulled Stiber over about 6 a.m. April 11, 2018, The Hour reported. He told the court Friday that he saw Stiber talking on a lighted black cell phone held up to his face.
“It was clearly visible,” Won said, according to the publication. “He was looking straight ahead, completely oblivious to the fact that I was there.”
But Stiber testified the officer actually saw him eating the hash brown patty he’d picked up with a caramel frappe a few minutes earlier at a McDonald’s drive-thru, The Hour reported.
“I don’t blame the cop for misinterpreting what he thought he saw, but the fact of the matter is there was no cell phone use and we have cell phone records to establish that fact,” said John Thygerson, Stiber’s attorney, according to WABC.
The citation carries a $300 fine, but Stiber said his auto insurance has gone up about $1,000, which is the amount he has spent on legal fees for the cases, The Times-Union reported.
“I have had a boatload of clients who have decided to fight the hard fight because they feel a right, rather than take the path of least resistance and just pay the small fine,” Thygerson said, WABC reported.
This story was originally published February 24, 2019 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Hash brown patty or phone? Driver says Connecticut cop mistook one for the other."