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Computer error leads trooper to seize woman's car
Wednesday, March 1, 2000
By SCOTT SUNDE
It could happen to you. After all, it happened to Janice Hill.
One minute Hill, an advertising saleswoman, was driving to work. The next, a tow truck was hauling off her car, and a state trooper was advising her that she was in trouble with the law.
Now Hill must go to court to fight a $114 towing charge and probably a second time to convince a judge that a charge of driving with a suspended license should be dropped.
"What a waste of money. This is ridiculous," complained Hill, who sells classified advertising for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Seattle Times.
"It is all very strange. . . . They will just take your car now."
Two years ago, state legislators toughened driving laws to remove from the road the estimated 340,000 people driving with suspended or revoked licenses.
The Washington State Patrol began enforcing the law last fall. It requires troopers to have cars driven by people with suspended licenses towed. There are no exceptions -- not even if they're driving someone else's car.
In cases where people have been convicted previously of driving with a suspended license, a car can be impounded for up to three months. Then the offender has to pay the towing and impoundment fees.
The State Patrol has yet to compile statistics on how many cars have been taken under the law, said Trooper Monica Hunter, a spokeswoman for the patrol in the Seattle area. But troopers order cars to be towed with such regularity that the agency is urging motorists to check their records for suspensions at local driver-license offices.
Hill's nightmare began just before 8 a.m. Friday.
She had just pulled on to Interstate 5 from Southwest 320th Street in Federal Way. A car cut her off, so she swerved to avoid an accident and came close to a trooper's cruiser.
The trooper pulled her over to see what happened and did a routine run of Hill's driver's license. His cruiser's computer showed that her license had been suspended in 1997, said Hunter, who has talked with the trooper. The trooper double-checked her record by radioing his office.
"He had to take her car at that point. He didn't have any other option," Hunter said.
The trooper walked back to Hill's car and told her the bad news. He called for a tow truck for her new Toyota Camry and punched a hole through her driver's license to invalidate it.
Then he snapped Hill's photograph, which troopers frequently do to make sure identification of the person they stopped is not an issue.
By that time, Hill was crying and confused. The trooper dropped her off at the next freeway exit.
Hill, who needs her car to make sales calls, set about trying to correct the error.
She got a statement from Federal Way District Court saying that her driving record shows no suspensions. She then got a new license and her car back.
A statewide court check shows Hill has one traffic violation: a 1996 ticket for driving in an HOV lane.
She paid a $50 fine in February 1997 in Federal Way District Court and the court notified the Washington Department of Licensing, records show.
The Licensing Department keeps driving records. The State Patrol uses those records to determine whether a driver's license has been suspended.
Earlier in 1997, the court had notified the department that Hill had yet to clear up the ticket and was in danger of having her license suspended.
Licensing Department records do not reflect that it received notification from the court that she had paid the fine, said Mark Varadian, agency spokesman. The error, he said, is unusual for the agency, which compiles the records of each of the state's 4.2 million motorists.
Varadian said his department sent her a letter in mid-January and another notice in mid-February that she had to clear up the violation or face suspension of her license in March 1997. Hill said she did not get the letters.
Still, she paid the $50 fine Feb. 20 -- before a court-imposed deadline.
Court records do show -- and court personnel and Varadian acknowledge -- that the license never should have been suspended. But the Licensing Department did exactly that in March 1997.
Court personnel notified the Licensing Department about the error Friday, and the agency lifted the suspension.
The State Patrol, however, is yet to be convinced. "I'm not so positive that her driver's license was wrongfully suspended," Hunter said yesterday. "If it was a mistake, that information doesn't filter back to the trooper."
Indeed, the trooper who stopped Hill began the process to have her charged with driving with a suspended license.
"She's going to have to fight that. According to the trooper and the records she has, her license was suspended," Hunter said.
Hill checked with the King County Prosecutor's Office yesterday and was told that she probably will have to show up for an arraignment to explain it all.
"They told me that there's nothing I can do to stop this process," she said.
Then there is a court hearing weeks away when Hill will try to get back the money she paid the towing company.
In the meantime, Hill is keeping the District Court statement that says her license is not suspended with her in her car.
She is in no mood to take chances.
P-I reporter Scott Sunde can be reached at 206-448-8331 or scottsunde@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The trouble with her trouble is that it is all a computer mistake: Records incorrectly showed that her driver's license was suspended. That bogus information tripped a tough state law that required her car to be impounded.
Janice Hill back in her Camry. "It is all very strange. ... They will just take your car now," she said of her computer-error nightmare that started with an incident on I-5.
Rick Giase/P-I
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