Local News in Brief : Motorists Caught by Photo Radar Get Off

Hundreds of motorists ticketed for speeding by Pasadena’s 3-month-old photo radar system had their cases dismissed Wednesday after a ruling that the police car containing the device was painted the wrong color.

Christopher Smith, Pasadena’s assistant city prosecutor, asked Municipal Court Commissioner Kevin Martin to dismiss all of the speeding cases that had not yet been completed. But Martin also dismissed, over Smith’s objections, those cases in which the defendants had pleaded guilty, elected to go to traffic school or forfeited bail.

Court officials had no count of how many cases might be dismissed, but city officials earlier said as many as 900 cases might be affected.

Ruling last week in the case of an Arcadia man ticketed by the photo radar device, Municipal Judge Samuel Laidig noted that state law requires traffic-enforcement vehicles to be painted white or white with a sharply contrasting color, usually black, to alert motorists.

The Pasadena Police Department, however, painted its radar vehicle white and gold, a color scheme not used on any of its other vehicles.

Pasadena police have since repainted the photo-radar car black and white.