Key witnesses failed to show up for trial on Tuesday in Athens-Clarke Municipal Court. Lawyer Regina Quick, defending two clients from charges that they were photographed running red lights, subpoenaed five traffic cameras at the West Broad Street-Alps Road intersection to testify that her clients did indeed barge through on red.
"I didn't observe them as they came in, so I don't believe they'll be appearing," Quick said.
Jim Davis, the assistant county attorney who prosecuted the cases, said Quick should have subpoenaed county officials to produce the cameras if she needed them to make her case. "It's not proper to serve an inanimate object, such as a camera," Davis said.
Municipal Court Judge Kay Giese found the defendants not guilty because Athens-Clarke County failed to produce any evidence that they are the registered owners of the cars caught on film illegally turning left on red, she said - not because the cameras did not come to court. But Quick's tactic spoke to what many people loathe about red-light cameras: That they can essentially be ticketed by a machine, not a human being.
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