What’s with ‘defective equipment’?

Have you ever wondered why the prosecuting attorney amends so many cases to the charge of defective equipment?

First, it should be understood that only the prosecuting attorney may charge someone with a crime. Members of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Sheriff’s office, and other law enforcement agencies may effect an arrest and/or issue a summons (commonly referred to as a ticket) directly to us; and they may direct us to appear in court. However, this summons to appear is not a criminal charge until it is signed by the prosecuting attorney and filed with the court.

The law enforcement officer delivers the ticket/summons issued to the prosecuting attorney who decides if it should be made a charge. If so, the prosecuting attorney signs the tickets/summonses and files them with the Associate Division of the Circuit Court. Generally, only the prosecuting attorney has the discretion to amend or dismiss a criminal charge. A judge can only dismiss a charge on proper motion by a party requesting same, after a preliminary hearing in the case of a felony, or at trial.

"Defective equipment" is a catchall phrase used by prosecuting attorneys when referring to Missouri Revised Statute §307.170 entitled: Other equipment of motor vehicles – violations, penalty. Within this statute are several subsections entitled: Signaling devices, muffler cutouts, brakes, mirrors, projections on vehicles, towlines, and commercial vehicles. A violation of this section is an infraction. Infractions may be punished by a fine of up to $200. No license points are assessed for a violation of this section unlike moving violations which generally carry three license points.

Nearly 3,000 criminal charges are filed each year in this office. Almost two-thirds of those are traffic tickets/summonses. In order to avoid trials, many prosecutors will amend speeding tickets to a violation of defective equipment in return for the defendant paying a higher fine than the original charge.

For example, if you receive a traffic ticket for speeding 70 mph in a 60 mph zone, the fine and court costs total $85 plus three points to your license. In Daviess County, the prosecuting attorney’s policy, provided you have a clean driving record, is to amend speeding tickets from 5-14 mph over the limit to a defective equipment charge in return for $200 total; for speeding tickets from 15-20 mph over the posted limit the fine and costs total $250; no amendment is offered if over 20 mph over the posted limit, or in a construction zone.

Those prosecuting attorneys who amend tickets have various reasons for doing so, but generally fit into three broad categories. First, as all fine money goes to the schools within the county, the larger fine benefits the public schools and the defendant is still being punished. Second, since no points result from a conviction for defective equipment, the defendant will not lose his/her license as a result of accumulation of points. And given that our rural area does not have the public transportation system offered by larger cities, keeping an employed person licensed and insured is a better option. And finally, it avoids numerous trials for relatively minor traffic offenses that could clog the courts. Every prosecuting attorney has a different philosophy regarding amendments to traffic tickets; some do amend and some do not. We will see what our new prosecuting attorney does in 2007.