Appeals Panel
12/17/2015
City of Providence v. Armais G. Kocharov, C.A. No. T15-0001 (December 17, 2015)
Operating an Unregistered Vehicle
The Defendant appealed the trial judge’s decision sustaining the charged violation of G.L. 1956 §31-3-1 (operation of vehicles without evidence of registration). The Defendant maintained he presented the police officer with a bill of sale for his vehicle to account for the fact that the registration linked to the vehicle’s license plate did not match the vehicle. The Defendant further contended that he had several days to correct the registration for the license plate. The Panel reviewed the relevant statute addressing transferring registration from one vehicle to another Here, because the license plate was last registered in 2008 it did qualify for a permissible transfer of a valid registration from one car to another. Therefore, the Panel found the trial judge was correct in sustaining the charged violation.
City of Providence v. Armais G. Kocharov, C.A. No. T15-0001 (December 17, 2015).pdf
Appeals Panel
08/20/2012
City of Cranston v. Louis Depina, C.A. No. T12-0018 (August 20, 2012) Operating an unregistered vehicle
Operating an Unregistered Vehicle
Defendant appealed the decision of the trial magistrate sustaining the violation of R.I.G.L. 1956 § 31-3-1 (operation of unregistered vehicle). Defendant argued that he presented the Officer with a valid registration for the dealer plate that was affixed to the vehicle, which he claimed was registered to the company he was working for. The Panel noted that the trial magistrate adopted the Officer’s testimony. The Officer testified that he ran several checks on both the dealer plate and the vehicle and found both to be unregistered. The Panel held that the Defendant’s testimony failed to rebut the Officer’s testimony that the dealer plate and vehicle were unregistered, and therefore the Defendant was knowingly operating an unregistered vehicle in violation of the statute. Accordingly, the Panel sustained the charged violation.
City of Cranston v. Louis Depina, C.A. No. T12-0018 (August 20, 2012).pdf