Law Opens Jaws Of Speed Trap In Ohio Town

LINNDALE, Ohio - This tiny Cleveland suburb is about to see its high-speed gravy train come to a screeching halt.

For years, Linndale has collected money hand over fist from speeding motorists nabbed along the 440 yards of Interstate 71 that bisect the three-block-long village.

But an amendment quietly tacked onto an otherwise routine revision of the state's motor-vehicle laws says municipalities must now have at least 880 yards of interstate before they can ticket motorists.

The new law, which takes effect Wednesday, also says officers may not leave their jurisdiction to write speeding tickets on the highway. Linndale's three full-time and nine part-time officers can't get to an I-71 on-ramp without leaving the village.

Linndale, population 200, made about $400,000 on speeders last year, more than 80 percent of its annual budget. Police issued about 5,000 tickets, said Chief Richard Kordick.

The I-71 pickings are easy. About 83,290 vehicles use that stretch of highway each day, according to a 1992 count by the Ohio Department of Transportation.

"I've seen no empirical evidence why that section of Interstate 71 is dangerous or unsafe or would require that kind of super patrolling," said state Rep. Ed Kasputis, who sponsored the amendment. Kasputis' northeastern Ohio district does not cover Linndale.

"If it's a dangerous area, the city of Cleveland could just as easily set up a speed trap - they'd only have to wait five seconds longer to catch the speeding motorists," he said.

Kordick accused Kasputis of getting even for a speeding ticket he got in Linndale in 1991. Kasputis was cited for traveling 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, Kordick said.

Kasputis says he wrote the amendment after a constituent who pleaded not guilty to a ticket complained he was placed in a crowded holding cell until he could raise a $75 cash bond to guarantee he would appear for trial.

"I've never met the police chief, and I don't know how he would even make an assertion of that magnitude," Kasputis said. "The only regret that I have is that I should have pleaded not guilty so that I could have seen then how they operate their mayor's court."

Part-time Mayor Donald Slusher says the new law will ruin his blink-and-you-miss-it village. He called it "spiteful" and unconstitutional.

The village also collects taxes from residents and the few small businesses and light industries wedged into its three-quarters of a square mile.

Kordick said Linndale would continue to issue tickets, even after the law takes effect.

"We are going to take them to court," he said. "They're violating our constitutional rights."