Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Senator Barron Explains his Side of the Story

Today in the Dekalb Co. Times Journal Senator Lowell Barron explains his side of the speeding ticket story.

In Florida near the state line, I came up on a motorcycle and passed the motorcycle.

“The motorcycle came right up on me with his high beams on. I drove a ways and tapped my break lights to try and get him to back off and he would not. I sped up and he sped up. I sped up and he sped up some more.”

“This was a very isolated area,” Barron said. “I became concerned for my safety and maintained my speed. Finally when I got to Andalusia I was relieved to be at a town. When I got to Andalusia, I was pulled over by three or four officers.”

Barron said he was pulled over by Andalusia officers. The plain clothes man on the motorcycle started yelling at him, Barron said.

“He said, ‘if you’re not going to give him a ticket, I will,’” Barron said. “He comes up and chews me out a second time. I listened and did not respond. The Andalusia police did not write me a ticket. This plain clothes officer wrote me two tickets. I don’t know what his jurisdiction is. I have an attorney working on that.”

Barron said he learned the plain clothes man was Blaine Wilson, and an elected official told him Wilson was a former police office but now is a radio disc jockey.

Wilson said Monday he quit the Andalusia police department in December to take over ownership of the radio station. He also said he is a part-time police officer for the city.

However, Deborah Spivey, human resource officer with the city of Andalusia, said Wilson resigned as an officer in December. Andalusia Police Chief Wilbur Williams said Wilson should have been transferred to part-time but that never happened. Wilson is not employed by the city.

Williams said he believes the tickets will stand.


If Senator Barron's recounting of what happened is accurate then I do not blame him for not pulling over. I wouldn't have either.

14 comments:

Schnitzel_Republic said...

This Blaine Wilson-character sounds like some cop-wanna-be. "Plain clothes" cop? On a motorcycle? Andalusia sounds like the anti-Mayberry.

As for Barron...I'll even cut some slack on the guy...say he shouldn't be getting a ticket.

Again, this is the kind of law enforcement that we joke about in Bama...and why its hard to sell companies like VW to build in the state. We simply don't have a state standard for law enforcement, and allow our "cousin Larry" to be some officer who doesn't know the first thing about representing the state...and this is how low-level corruption has swamped the state.

Until people start taking towns and countys into court....over corruption and poor police training....we aren't going to fix nothing.

Anonymous said...

Driving on somebody's bumper at night, with headlights on bright, is an old trick some bored cops will pull to cause a motorist to speed up, so the cop can write a speeding ticket.

I know -- it has happened to me three times over the years, twice in Alabama, once in Georgia.

I don't know if this underhanded practice is taught at the academy or just passed along among cops; but they're lying if they say it doesn't happen.

If Barron's description of this episode is accurate, this bogus cop should be locked up.

And that chief who is backing this outrage should be sent packing,too.

We don't need anymore crooked cops in Alabama. We have enough already.

That ex-cop turned in his badge months ago, it is time somebody removed the siren from his ass.

Peter said...

I am disappointed that Sen. Barron- or more likely, the newspaper reporter and/or editor- don't know the difference between "break" and "brake".

Anonymous said...

Weird

Anonymous said...

Regardless of your political leanings, you have to feel a little bit sorry for Sen. Barron.
Last year he was punched out in the Alabama Senate chamber, and now he has been arrested by a disk jockey.

(A disk jockey! When you call the request line at that Andalusia radio station, they ask if you want to hear a song or swear out a warrant.)

It is obvious Lowell Barron is working off some seriously bad karma. I would advise him to immediately get rid of all his hidden vibrators and inflatible love dolls. He doesn't want to get busted by some ex-college homecoming king from the attorney general's office!

Don said...

From “Barron ticketed for reckless driving” @ http://new.times-journal.com/story.lasso?ewcd=09e962068b7dc72b:
“Andalusia Police Chief Wilbur Williams said Wilson should have been transferred to part-time but that never happened.”
That sounds like there was some sort of breakdown in procedures that the court will have to sort out.
One question I would have for Barron (because he has been known to exceed the speed limit in the past) would be what speed was he travelling at when he passed the motorcycle in Florida, and what was the posted speed limit where he did the passing.
Which state should have jurisdiction also comes into play possibly, but one thing that seems certain is that Barron was driving in a reckless manner in Alabama when “Barron said he was pulled over by Andalusia officers”.

Anonymous said...

The last I heard, motorist were advised to never stop for anyone not readily identifiable as a police officer who was trying to pull them over on a deserted stretch of road.

Does this admonition still apply?

I know of a similar incident on I-85 where a couple were stopped and robbed by a idiot who pulled them over. And there have been even worse cases.

I am not a Lowell Barron fan, but I wouldn't have stopped, either. And I have a (licensed) gun in the car.

What we really need to know now is whether somebody who "used" to be a cop retains arrest powers, with the authority to write tickets.

If disk jockeys can write tickets, somebody need to issue a citation for Toby Keith.

Anonymous said...

I don't pull over in those small towns and I definitely would not have pulled over if some looney former cop were chasing me. I think they should let Barron attend traffic school and then dismiss the ticket once he produces evidence he attended the school.

Cool Blue said...

Barron passed the motorcycle at speeds estimated by witnesses to be over 100 miles per hour.

Remember this is the senator who had a law passed forbidding local law enforcement officers from writing tickets on the Interstate. This was after he was annoyed at being pulled over TWICE for going OVER 90 MILES PER HOUR through small town jurisdictions.

Still feel sorry for him? I think he should be locked up, or at least forbidden to drive.

Loretta Nall said...

No I don't think he should be locked up. I concede that he should not have been breaking the speed limit but that isn't the real issue here. The issue is that he was being followed by someone who is not a police officer (but thinks he is because he used to be one)according to the town he claimed to work for. Can you honestly say that you would have pulled over for some unidentified person on a motorcycle in a remote area in the dark of night? Especially if you have as many enemies as Lowell Barron does? I know I wouldn't have and I wouldn't fault my worst enemy for not pulling over under the circumstances.

Cool Blue said...

Sorry for the double post. I thought my first post was lost when I registered.

Cool Blue said...

He was ticketed for speeding, not for failure to stop. The man who ticketed him was supposed to be transitioned from full to part time, according to the town's police department. A clerical error took him off the rolls.

Would you like to be on the roads with this man? Do you want your children on the roads with this many when he passes a motorcycle going 100 miles per hour?

I just hope when he eventually wrecks that he does not take a minivan full of people with him. This will not stop him from speeding. Too many people are supporting him.

Cool Blue said...

If I seem a teeny bit rabid on the subject on Barron's driving, it is partly because one of my kids just started college, and has to drive near Montgomery. Drivers like Barron are a mother's worst nightmare. And knowing that he is regularly speeding on the same highways my child drives, and that Barron faces no consequences when he drives at a reckless rate of speed, is terrifying.

Loretta Nall said...

cool blue....I am not a Senator Lowell Barron supporter. I don't live in his district and have never had any direct dealings with him in my legislative work. I understand he isn't a popular guy with a lot of people.

But the issue here is not really Lowell Barron. The issue is that someone, not identifiable as a police officer, either by clothing or by vehicle, tried to act in the capacity of one. If what Barron says is true then he is perfectly justified in not stopping.

None of the clerical errors matter in this case. The guy trying to stop Barron was not a cop. Therefore Barron was correct in not stopping. He had no way of knowing it was a cop....because it wasn't a cop.

Just recently in the Montgomery area a man was arrested for impersonating a police officer and attempting to assault women. And this guy from Hoover did sexually assault some women while impersonating a police officer. Would you want your daughter to pull over if she wasn't sure it was a cop?