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Three Abreast

Editor's Note: Fred Meredith & Reed Murray, cyclists in their 50's who follow all traffic laws scrupulously, were riding side by side on a CM ride when Shaun Stenshol passed them on the left. For the brief moment that Shaun was passing them, they were technically three abreast. A cop pulled them over and gave all three of them tickets! I was riding right behind Fred & Reed, and I witnessed the whole thing. Fred & Reed went to court month after month, with their case being delayed each time. Finally, after several months of that, the prosecution moved to dismiss the case for "lack of evidence". Below is one of Reed's emails about the case. -- Michael Bluejay

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From: Reed Murray

Date: Tue, Mar 7, 1995

Subject: Monday's court appearances

 

Fred, Tommy and I (Reed) met Sunday at Tommy's apt to go over strategy. My case had been rescheduled for Mon but Fred's had not!? I was bummed that I no longer could rely on Fred's case as a buffer and learning experience. I got home around 4pm and immediately started typing my notes. I was so jazzed by putting it all together that I didn't even notice that time fastforwarded to 1am!

 

I found somethinbg veeeerrry interesting while reviewing the tapes (by the way, I have all the tapes and will copy them a couple of times before I let any of them go; I'l be done by the end of the weekend probably);

 

Fred had transcribed some of the more egregous comments made by officers looking for specific riders to arrest; one of the things that Raines says (this happened several times during the 12/3/93 ride) just before he orders a "motor unit" to pop someone is "he's goin'" or "he's goin' down."

 

During the 9/30/94 ride, the one Fred, Shaun, and myself got tickets for 3 abreast, there's is an interaction between Shaun and Raines that is on the tape where Shaun and Raines engage in a little verbal battle while Shaun is riding past the cruiser. The transcription of this makes for interesting reading but the part that Fred missed is that after Shaun rides on, Raines says, quietly, under his breath ; "he's goin'."

 

The VERY NEXT image on the video is of the 3 abreast bust.

 

(As an aside here - this kind of police action - arrest or ticketing or harrassment without just cause is precisly the thing that happened during the Valentine's busts on the East side ((the police didn't want to release the 911 tapes; just as they didn't want to release the cm videos)) and probably occured during the drug busts on 4th Street as well. I'm wondering if someone could use these tapes to prove some kind of civil rights or civil liberties case against APD?)

 

ANYWAY..... I showed up Mon. morning - Fred was there as was Shaun, whose other case was up for trial the same day. McCann was there with the police tapes and I saw Raines and Newberry in the hall. Haffelder, however, called in sick that day so I argeed to have the case reset. In talking with Shaun's lawyer, we realized that, since I had subpoenad Haffelder, I could have forced the judge to issue a warrent for his arrest and had a cop go to his house and bring him in! What a trip!