Prince George’s Councilwoman Karen Toles has been found guilty of reckless driving and fined $402 after being caught speeding along the Capital Beltway earlier this year.
A judge found Toles guilty of the charges on Wednesday. In addition to the fine, she must also pay $33 in court fees and was given probation, according to NBC Washington.
The charges stem from a while driving a county-issued vehicle.
In court this week, police testified that Toles told them she was distracted using her phone and putting on makeup as her vehicle cruised 50 mph above the speed limit.
Toles will not have points added to her driving record and will be given a chance to have the incident wiped from her driving record if she goes a year without a traffic offense.
At the time of the incident, Toles was fined $90 and given a warning. She was subsequently stripped of using her county-issued vehicle until she completed a driver improvement class and faced additional charges
Oh, and is she included in the county employees getting a $3,000 bonus??
This goes back to February and seemed to have been a pretty drawn out process. I believe she either had the option of paying the fine early on or going through the court process, which likely gave the option of having no points put on her record and a higher fine including court costs.
As a PG resident I feel the arresting patrolman,the judge and the rest of the PG council members turned their backs on the existing laws and levels of punishment that would have been levied against the rest of the population PERIOD Speed was not the only law broken in this case.
Remember the morning's you drove putting on lipstick or texting, or whatever distracts you that day. Don't forget the daily road rage when we somehow forget that it's not our private road space. She was wrong, and yes she had her day in court. The outcome may not seem fair to you but I believe she has had her day of punishment and humiliation. So take your self-righteous criticisms and remember the next time you are out there driving irresponsibly quite possibly on a daily basis, are you any better.?
According to an abreviated DMV Point System in Maryland table I consulted online, Speeding (20 mph or greater over the 65 mph speed limit) carries a fine plus 5 points against one's driver's license. SInce she driving at 105 MPH, which was 50 MPH over the posted speed limit (not to mention not paying full time and attention, by using cell phone and putting on makeup), the posted limit must have been 55 MPH. As such, I would think she would have been assessed at least 5 points. I can only assume Maryland law allows discretion by the judge to waive points.
the beltway's speed limit is 55... so she was at least 45mph over, not the "10-30" that you seem to think people drive over the limit on a regular basis (10 over, sure... 30 over, not so much, not even in PG county). i have never driven 100mph in my life, nor have i been a passenger when someone else was driving that fast. i think the fastest i've ever driven is 80 on a road with a limit of 75 (rural interstate). driving 100mph is not normal and very dangerous (not to mention harmful to the vehicle that my hard-earned money helped pay for, and wasteful of the gas that, again, i helped pay for) and, accordingly, ms. toles is deserving of my outrage and disgust.
Of course, I'm a complete imbecile, so that has to be taken into account.
She has stupidly confused driving as a right and not the privilage that it is. Clearly she is not smart enough to obey laws so she should not by in a job where she votes on their passage. Hope her poor district voters remember that in November. Prince Georgians do not need to be embarrassed by another elected numbskull.