Gates Beats Medina Speeding-Ticket Rap On A Technicality

BELLEVUE - Microsoft mogul Bill Gates was just one of the folks in Bellevue District Court earlier this week who beat the system because of a foul-up.

A speeding ticket issued to Gates by a Medina police officer last summer became quite literally a paper chase and then a tempest after the officer, Garry Raymond, received a suspension for what Medina city officials said were other problems with his overall performance.

Gates also was cited for not having proof of insurance.

On Tuesday, Gates' speeding ticket was dismissed because of an "administrative error" by prosecutors in giving the court some evidence, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County prosecutor's office.

Gates' was one of several tickets dismissed from other Eastside jurisdictions because discovery information was not available to defendants' attorneys.

Donohoe said this morning that Gates' attorneys did not have a copy of information which had been supplied by the city of Medina - the ticket and certification documents on the radar gun Raymond used when he cited Gates.

The flap began just after midnight on July 2, 1993 when Raymond clocked Gates' 1993 Lexus traveling 57 miles an hour in a 35 mph speed zone on the 2400 block of 84th Avenue Northeast.

While ticketing Gates for speeding, the officer discovered that Gates' insurance had lapsed 30 minutes earlier and cited him for

that.