Adrian helmet tickets to be dropped.

OFF THE WIRE
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2010, 7:16 PM
> http://www.lenconnect.com/news/x383302505/Motorcycle-helmet-tickets-to-be-dropped
>
> By Dennis Pelham
> Daily Telegram
> Posted Jun 24, 2010 @ 05:08 PM
> ADRIAN, Mich. — Motorcyclists fighting unapproved helmet
> tickets they received this spring from Adrian police were
> notified last week the cases are being dropped.
>
> Legal issues brought up in Lenawee County District Court by
> an attorney for a motorcycle rights group are the same ones
> involved in a lawsuit in federal court in Grand Rapids, said
> Adrian City Attorney Sarah Osburn. Rather than leave the
> half-dozen tickets pending in Lenawee County District Court
> for months or years while the federal case is decided, she
> said, the tickets were dismissed.
>
> Depending on the outcome of the federal lawsuit, she said,
> it is possible the tickets could be reinstated. But that has
> not been decided, Osburn said.
>
> Helmet enforcement in Adrian this spring drew the attention
> of ABATE of Michigan Inc. An attorney for the state’s
> chapter of American Bikers Aiming Toward Education showed up
> for an April 20 hearing on a challenged helmet ticket in
> district court, along with about 20 local members of the
> group.
>
> Osburn said she and Sgt. Lynn Courington, who wrote the
> helmet tickets, agreed to drop enforcement action until the
> federal lawsuit defines how the helmet law is to be
> applied.
>
> Courington, a motorcycle instructor and enthusiast, said
> there was nothing personal about the enforcement actions or
> the decision to wait for legal issues to clear up.
>
> “Whatever the law says to do, that’s what you do,” he
> said Wednesday.
>
> Martin Richardson, one of the first motorcyclists to fight
> the helmet tickets, said he was happy to learn the city is
> dropping the cases.
>
> “I did not think it was appropriate the way it was
> handled,” Richardson said. He said he felt his rights were
> being abused when he was stopped and his helmet taken for
> evidence, forcing him to wait for a friend to bring him
> another helmet before he could ride home.
>
> A federal judge in Grand Rapids agreed in April to decide a
> claim by ABATE that Michigan’s helmet law is being
> illegally enforced by police who stop riders on suspicion of
> wearing an unapproved helmet. The group claims there is no
> method for police to determine if helmets meet federal
> Department of Transportation requirements without looking
> inside the headgear, making the stops illegal searches.