Beware.....Lake Havasu is a tourist trap (Lake Havasu City, Casa Grande: renting, vacation home)

[kdog]

Originally Posted by Arizona Bound

The magistrate himself has been found guilty of misconduct in his own court,
...
All these articles, along with others all can be found in the local LHC newspaper.
You can even find articles about the magistrate in other papers
like the washington post..

Funny how neither google, nor an archive search of the Washington Post turns up anything about this incident. How about some more information. Judges name? When did the incident take place? What was the judge found guilty of?

Also, if a judge was indeed found guilty by his own court, doesn't that in itself indicate that the court isn't corrupt?

[zamfir]

Originally Posted by kdog

Funny how neither google, nor an archive search of the Washington Post turns up anything about this incident. How about some more information. Judges name? When did the incident take place? What was the judge found guilty of?

Also, if a judge was indeed found guilty by his own court, doesn't that in itself indicate that the court isn't corrupt?

Here ya go: http://www.supreme.state.az.us/ethic...82%20Final.pdf
It looks like the judge got a little testy with an attorney in court, the attorney was angry enough to file an official complaint, and the state supreme court slapped the judge's hand. Tip of the iceberg? Maybe.

[Sam Shaw]

Originally Posted by zamfir

Here ya go: http://www.supreme.state.az.us/ethic...82%20Final.pdf
It looks like the judge got a little testy with an attorney in court, the attorney was angry enough to file an official complaint, and the state supreme court slapped the judge's hand. Tip of the iceberg? Maybe.

I spent a good bit of time on google researching these complaints and this is the only one that I found. Because the Judge and the attorney got into an argument and the Judge said he would find him in contempt and the attorney filed a complaint on him does not make the court corrupt. There are two sides to every story and as I've stated before, the government here isn't perfect and I don't agree with some of the decisions made by the city council but that doesn't make the government nor the court corrupt.

[Sam Shaw]

Originally Posted by Arizona Bound

The magistrate himself has been found guilty of misconduct in
his own court, the city lawyer is on probation for 2 years with the
Bar Association, along with a hefty fine. There has been quite a few
cops fired for misconduct in the last few years. All these articles,
along with others all can be found in the local LHC newspaper.
You can even find articles about the magistrate in other papers
like the washington post.. the articles are all negative reports.
So... there must be truth to the bad reports. ???

As stated in my other post I am aware of the complaint against the Judge for getting in a shouting match with defense attorney. I'm not aware of nor do I find any other complaints filed. I am aware of a few police officers being fired two or three years ago as well as the police chief being fired. Since the new chief has been in office I have heard of no officers being fired and have heard positive reviews of the police department. The fact that the city replaced the chief and a few officers should show in and of itself that they will not tolerate a corrupt department. You can pick any town and find fault with some part of it's government. Do a google search on judge and police misconduct and you'll find this town has little to complain about. Again, not saying there isn't room for improvement but for the same few nay sayers to come on and beat the dead horse over and over is childish as best. It is not as bad as many would lead you to believe.

[Sam Shaw]

Originally Posted by Arizona Bound

The magistrate himself has been found guilty of misconduct in
his own court, the city lawyer is on probation for 2 years with the
Bar Association, along with a hefty fine. There has been quite a few
cops fired for misconduct in the last few years. All these articles,
along with others all can be found in the local LHC newspaper.
You can even find articles about the magistrate in other papers
like the washington post.. the articles are all negative reports.
So... there must be truth to the bad reports. ???

I would agree with you in that the city attorney should be replaced. He claims that there has been a lot of miscommunication between his office and the attorney generals office. I would also like to see the city manager replaced as well. I feel he has his own agenda not in the best interest of the city. That being said, the town still isn't like an old corrupt city from the south in the 70's. Room for improvement... yes... as bad as the same few post over and over... not even close. The city is full of snowbirds again this winter. Sure, a few will complain about the snowbirds being here too. You'll never please all the people all the time. It's the vocal minority you hear from and not the silent majority. I came here as a visitor for years before I moved here full time. I've never had any problems here as a visitor or a full time resident. I love it here and I'm staying here. If you don't like it......then don't come pretty much sums it up.

[taratune]

Gee, I guess I forgot to clarify that we were not flagrantly breaking the law. The wave runner was barely moving when they got the ticket. When we were driving the thing we would give it a little gas let it coast and then give it a little more gas....just enough to barely keep the thing moving. On this particular wave runner the front would bobble so badly that it was very difficult to control if it wasn't moving forward at least a little. Perhaps there was something wrong with the wave runner....and we didn't know it. But I can tell you that we were told to keep in under 10 mph until we got past the buoys and we were well under that. The speed would barely come up to the bottom notch of the speedometer (perhaps up to 5 mph).

We were being extra careful due to our inexperience. I do not believe that it was possible to go any slower. If we were making a wake....and I think this is a big IF....then it was due to the need to constantly correct the steering of a wave runner that was barely moving.

Plus.....after my son got his ticket....we watched several others get tickets. As soon as the patrol boat finished with one person, they immediately pulled the next unfortunate water craft over. I was watching while swimming around in a buoyed off swimming area. If the reason for the excessive wake tickets it to protect the swimmers and the beaches I can tell you that I was not being disturbed by what the water craft that were being pulled over were doing.....but I was very disturbed at watching all the people getting pulled over. That is why I know this was a setup "wake trap". I thought the Judge would be interested to know how unfair the police officers were being. It was only later that we found out that the Judge (and apparently the city) was in on the fix.

How do I know about the unfair court system?......We drove over to the court house and spoke with the clerk. She explained that we could not see the Judge or schedule a day to see the Judge until they got our paper work which would take a few weeks. She also told us that we had to come to LHC to request a trial date in person or hire an attorney to do it for us because we could not request a trial date by mail or by phone. The letter that we got in the mail told us the same thing. So we knew we would have to make the trip over to LHC at least two more times in order to have an opportunity to speak with the Judge. That is when I googled around to find out about the Judges reputation for making tourist come back to court several times and always siding with the officers and we knew it was a waste of time. We also read about all the traffic tickets that people were getting and didn't want to risk getting yet another ticket by driving through town to get to the court house to see an unfair judge about the unfair excessive wake ticket.

In addition to the stories on the internet we read...we also spoke to several people here in San Diego who had similar experiences. When my son said to his physics teacher that she would never guess what he got a ticket for while in Lake Havasu....she said "excessive wake" and then told him the story of when she got hers.

There is no way to win except to stay away from Lake Havasu.

There are suckers born every minute and I'm sure that LHC will continue to get its share....but the town is not running at capacity.....so everybody who stays away costs the town money. That is why I think that LHC is being penny wise and pound foolish.

I know that the city would have made a lot more from my return visits than they got from that ticket.

Oh I forgot to say....I don't know exactly where on the lake we were except that is was a tourist area. ...and I don't know which law enforcement agency gave my son the ticket. What difference does it make....they all feed into the same court.

[Sam Shaw]

Originally Posted by taratune

Gee, I guess I forgot to clarify that we were not flagrantly breaking the law. The wave runner was barely moving when they got the ticket. When we were driving the thing we would give it a little gas let it coast and then give it a little more gas....just enough to barely keep the thing moving. On this particular wave runner the front would bobble so badly that it was very difficult to control if it wasn't moving forward at least a little. Perhaps there was something wrong with the wave runner....and we didn't know it. But I can tell you that we were told to keep in under 10 mph until we got past the buoys and we were well under that. The speed would barely come up to the bottom notch of the speedometer (perhaps up to 5 mph).

We were being extra careful due to our inexperience. I do not believe that it was possible to go any slower. If we were making a wake....and I think this is a big IF....then it was due to the need to constantly correct the steering of a wave runner that was barely moving.

Plus.....after my son got his ticket....we watched several others get tickets. As soon as the patrol boat finished with one person, they immediately pulled the next unfortunate water craft over. I was watching while swimming around in a buoyed off swimming area. If the reason for the excessive wake tickets it to protect the swimmers and the beaches I can tell you that I was not being disturbed by what the water craft that were being pulled over were doing.....but I was very disturbed at watching all the people getting pulled over. That is why I know this was a setup "wake trap". I thought the Judge would be interested to know how unfair the police officers were being. It was only later that we found out that the Judge (and apparently the city) was in on the fix.

How do I know about the unfair court system?......We drove over to the court house and spoke with the clerk. She explained that we could not see the Judge or schedule a day to see the Judge until they got our paper work which would take a few weeks. She also told us that we had to come to LHC to request a trial date in person or hire an attorney to do it for us because we could not request a trial date by mail or by phone. The letter that we got in the mail told us the same thing. So we knew we would have to make the trip over to LHC at least two more times in order to have an opportunity to speak with the Judge. That is when I googled around to find out about the Judges reputation for making tourist come back to court several times and always siding with the officers and we knew it was a waste of time. We also read about all the traffic tickets that people were getting and didn't want to risk getting yet another ticket by driving through town to get to the court house to see an unfair judge about the unfair excessive wake ticket.

In addition to the stories on the internet we read...we also spoke to several people here in San Diego who had similar experiences. When my son said to his physics teacher that she would never guess what he got a ticket for while in Lake Havasu....she said "excessive wake" and then told him the story of when she got hers.

There is no way to win except to stay away from Lake Havasu.

There are suckers born every minute and I'm sure that LHC will continue to get its share....but the town is not running at capacity.....so everybody who stays away costs the town money. That is why I think that LHC is being penny wise and pound foolish.

I know that the city would have made a lot more from my return visits than they got from that ticket.

Oh I forgot to say....I don't know exactly where on the lake we were except that is was a tourist area. ...and I don't know which law enforcement agency gave my son the ticket. What difference does it make....they all feed into the same court.

It makes a big difference. You have claimed it was the Lake Havasu City PD. in other posts. It could have been the local PD, Arizona Fish and Game, Mohave County Sheriff's Office or the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office. There are several different police departments that have a water patrol on Lake Havasu. I find it hard to believe they are all feeding the court. I spend many hours on the water and have never seen any agency just stop one boat after another. I have also seen them give out warnings and not issue tickets. I can't say you were or were not treated fairly as I wasn't there. From many years of personal experience of being on and using the lake I can say if you were treated unfairly it is not the norm. Only you and the officer really know the truth and we haven't heard from the officer as we don't even know what department he is with With that said.. I'm headed to the lake to enjoy a nice day on the water.

[observer53]

I'll actually bet they DON'T all feed into the Lake Havasu municipal court.

Obviously we are never going to know the whole story from everyone involved, so that part I suggest we drop.

And, as to one of the other subtopics in this thread, a judge getting into a shouting match with a defense attorney certainly does NOT make the court "corrupt". And I wouldn't call that slap on the hand from the judicial commission eighteen months ago anything more than exactly that.... . there have been municipal judges and JPs hauled before the Commission on much worse. That little tiff really is nothing.

[Arizona Bound]

well.. maybe not to you.. but it was to the defending attorney.
The attorney was not allowed to present his case in full and
was not allowed the full diligence of the law...
And that little tiff just goes to show that this magistrate "thinks"
he can get away with whatever he likes in his court....

[Sam Shaw]

Originally Posted by Arizona Bound

well.. maybe not to you.. but it was to the defending attorney.
The attorney was not allowed to present his case in full and
was not allowed the full diligence of the law...
And that little tiff just goes to show that this magistrate "thinks"
he can get away with whatever he likes in his court....

This incident is a far cry from proving the Judge and the entire Lake Havasu City justice system are corrupt. If there have been other issues of a more serious nature I would like to read the complaints. Based on the alleged complaints people post up on the forums I would think that a google search should give us pages and pages of proof. If this is the best they can do... well enough said.