Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Austin, > > Municipal Code violations are not prosecuted by the District Attorney's > office, so they are still free to fight "real crime." They are, instead, > prosecuted by the City Attorney's office. > > Would you prefer that trespassing not be criminal? > > Bryan Sure. In MA, speeding tickets used to be criminal. They are now civil. My understanding of the reason for the change was that hearsay could not be used in criminal cases as evidence, but in civil it could. This would allow the cop to basically say "I saw him speeding" and the judge could then say "guilty", and no further proof was required. The state garnered a lot more income, and the trials moved much more expeditiously. A real win/win for the state.