04/29/2015
The Defendant appealed the trial magistrate’s decision to sustain the charged violations of R.I.G.L. 1956 § 31-14-2 (prima facie limits) and § 31-27-27 (multiple moving offenses) and to impose sanctions pursuant to R.I.G.L. 1956 § 31-27-24 (Colin B. Foote Act). Here, the trial magistrate found that the Defendant posed a potential hazard to motorists based on his receiving four driving violations within an eighteen-month period and imposed the sanctions. The Defendant argued that the trial magistrate’s imposition of sanctions was improper because he did not consider the number of miles the Defendant drives on a yearly basis, which he said was fifty to sixty thousand. The Panel held that since the statute does not require the trial magistrate to consider the number of miles driven each year, the trial magistrate did not err in imposing sanctions.
Town of Portsmouth v. Kevin Dietz, C.A. No. T14-0043 (April 29, 2015).pdf