Request By:
Mr. Aubrey R. Mooney
Webster County Attorney
Courthouse
Dixon, Kentucky 42409
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As county attorney, you and the trial commissioner in Webster County are concerned as to what steps may be taken against nonresident motorists who violate Kentucky motor vehicle law and subsequently fail to appear to answer such charges. You are especially interested in whether or not the district court can fine such defendants in their absence and whether there is any type of reciprocity between Kentucky and other states for the enforcement of traffic laws.
We assume that such defendants are merely given a citation to appear before the district court on a certain date to answer the charged violation of one or more of the motor vehicle traffic laws contained in KRS Chapter 189.
The citation does not confer jurisdiction of a person. The citation is not a court process, since it issues from a peace officer and not from the court. It simply does not have the legal efficacy of a warrant or summons. Where only a citation has been issued and no complaint is filed and no summons or warrant is issued, then the district court would have no jurisdiction of the person until and unless the accused delivers himself in person to the court in obedience to the citation, or unless he enters his appearance by other means. See
Duncan v. Brothers, Ky., 344 S.W.2d 398 (1961). In addition, as to the conferring of jurisdiction of the person, such jurisdiction can be conferred where the defendant enters his appearance by stating such fact to the court in writing delivered to the court, or where he has his attorney enter his appearance. If the defendant's appearance is not entered in one of the ways above suggested, then the district court would not be able to try the defendant in absentia, for lack of jurisdiction. Conversely, if an appearance is entered in any of the ways suggested, then the court would have jurisdiction sufficient to try the defendant in absentia.
Past experience indicates that some nonresidents, upon being given merely a citation, have a tendency to not make any kind of appearance before the Kentucky court. Apparently, they must finally sense that the court does not have jurisdiction; and they also realize, perhaps, that normally the extradition processs will not extend to such misdemeanors, as a practical matter. The practical alternative would be that such nonresidents be actually arrested and taken before the court. The bad thing about that is that very few Americans relish the idea of being arrested for mere traffic violations, especially speeding which is conducted without reckless driving or without drunken driving. It simply goes against the engrained spirit of the American to be generally free from such restraint. In addition, a policy of arresting nonresidents for minor traffic violations that do not involve either reckless driving or drunken driving would seem to violate the very practical purpose behind the enactment of KRS 431.015 relating to the issuance of citations. The legislature, recognizing this free spirit of Kentuckians and other Americans, has established the principle that actual arrests should be made only where it is necessary to bring the defendant before the court. In fact the statute reads that a peace officer may issue a citation instead of making an arrest for a misdemeanor committed in his presence, "if there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person being cited will appear to answer the charge." (Emphasis added).
The terms "jail" and "arrest" are really abstract terms until one is arrested for a minor traffic violation and unceremoniously conducted from the realm of privacy and freedom of action to the "London Tower" of the county or city jail. Oscar Wilde described the gnawing anguish of the human spirit upon being incarcerated:
"All that we know who lie in jail Is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year A year whose days are long."
Heaven help us if peace officers arrest only to get a fee. However, if the peace officer has reasonable grounds to believe that the person charged with the traffic violation will not appear to answer the charge, he can arrest the defendant in good conscience. However, the officer has no right to assume the defendant will not make an appearance merely because he is a nonresident.
We are not aware of any state reciprocal statutory system regarding this problem.