Lakewood, NJ – Judge Affirms Dismissal of Controversial Traffic Ticket

Lakewood, NJ – Although based on erroneous information from the municipal prosecutor, a plea agreement to dismiss a speeding ticket issued to a local woman cannot be withdrawn for Constitutional reasons of double jeopardy, a Municipal Court judge has ruled.

The ticket issued Feb. 5 to Roslyn Feiner Ostreicher, 46, of 14th Street was dismissed March 26 at the request of Douglas W. Jones Jr., former municipal prosecutor.

Ostreicher did not have a lawyer that day in Municipal Court when she faced a speeding ticket saying she drove 17 miles above the 35 mile-per-hour limit and a summons for not having her driving credentials with her.

The prosecutor told Municipal Court Judge Scott J. Basen that there was a deal for her to plead guilty to a credentials violation and to dismiss the speeding ticket. The judge allowed the plea arrangement.

Jones said in court that the issuing police officer, Patrolman David Silberstein, told him the radar was broken. However, Silberstein later denied that conversation and the Police Department denied that there was a problem with the radar unit.

Jones left the law firm which serves as municipal prosecutor, and a hearing on the motion by the current prosecutor to reopen the case was heard by Judge Basen July 20.

“I am concerned at the circumstances of this plea,” Basen said. “It is obvious that the state put forth the plea arrangement based on the prosecutor’s mistake concerning the status and working order of the radar. . . .”
“In my mind, the defendant received a better plea arrangement than the circumstances would dictate,” he said. “This causes me grave consternation.”

“I cannot recall any situation in my three odd years on the bench in Lakewood where the state proffered a plea arrangement seeking a dismissal of a speeding violation and (that) allowed the defendant to plea to a credentials violation,” Basen said. “That is simply not the manner in which such matters have been handled in this court.”

“My inclination is to grant the state’s motion to vacate the plea so the defendant would not receive this unwarranted plea arrangement,” Basen said.
“My personal inclination is to correct this mistake.” Basen said.
“I must take into account double jeopardy,” he added, however. “I cannot grant the state’s motion to reopen the case.”

By having pleaded guilty to the credential violations, it would be double jeopardy to retry her on the speeding ticket, Basen said.

The Constitution protects people from double jeopardy — prosecuting someone twice for the same offense, especially after an acquittal in the first trial.
Basen also said, though, that the issuing officer does not have to be consulted when the prosecutor proffers a deal.

In 2005, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office had examined the Lakewood Municipal Court sessions in a ticket-fixing scandal involving Rabbi Usher Z. Feiner, police chaplain and husband of Roslyn who has the name Roslyn Ostreicher on her driver’s license.

Although it concluded there was no criminal activity, the county prosecutor’s office criticized the then-Municipal Court judge, municipal prosecutors and local police for not following court guidelines in dismissing 78 tickets against various defendants without stated reasons during a six-month period.
These included traffic, code enforcement and other kinds of summonses.

Usher Feiner’s tickets were reinstated because they were dismissed without the issuing officer’s knowledge, according to the county prosecutor’s office.

Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford said the recent case continues to be an active investigation by her office.

“I don’t think it’s so much a case of equipment being broken or dysfunctional,” said Michael Billig, 62, of Lakewood, a resident who follows the local politics and town events. “It seems, as always, more another demonstration of our local legal system breaking down.”