A federal judge has dismissed a case against the City of Carmel regarding a traffic citation it gave out. It’s the second such legal win in the last 12 months for Carmel regarding traffic citations.
In December 2015, Jason Maraman, representing himself, filed a lawsuit against the city to challenge his 2014 speeding ticket. He claimed that Carmel was giving a local ticket based on state law, which he felt was not allowed. An appeals court agreed with Maraman that Carmel couldn’t simply copy state traffic laws, but Carmel appealed the case to the Indiana Supreme Court. The state’s highest court refused to hear the case.
Maraman, having won his state lawsuit, decided to file a federal lawsuit in June 2016 saying the City of Carmel violated his U.S. Constitutional rights and that he was unfairly targeted for out-of-county plates. He was seeking compensation for damages.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt dismissed this federal lawsuit on July 28 saying the fact that state laws were broken does not amount to a constitutional violation.
“It was a frivolous case in my opinion,” Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said. “This was the last stop before the U.S. Supreme Court. We won that case and the judges were very clear.”
After Maraman’s case, an attorney filed a class action lawsuit for 18 motorists who were ticketed in similar situations, but a federal judge dismissed the case in October 2016.
