02/09/07 (OH):
Lawyer & Expert (Father & Son) Win Appeal
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Defense attorney K. Ron Bailey is headed back to Municipal Court to challenge a violation received for his tinted automobile windows. Bailey gets to have another view of the case because the 6th District Court of Appeals overturned his municipal court conviction.
Bailey was cited by the Highway Patrol in January 2006 while traveling on US 20 for not displaying a license plate on the front of his vehicle and for having nonconforming tinted auto glass.
During a municipal court hearing, Bailey pleaded no contest after the court ruled he couldn't use his 25-year-old son's testimony as an expert witness to dispute the ''scientific unreliability'' of the device used to measure the tint of the window, the documents stated.
'It's nice when people agree with you that your son has some expertise,' Bailey said about the appeals court agreeing his son can be an expert witness for him.
His son, Thomas K. Bailey, obtained two degrees, each of which included courses relating to electronic circuitry, chemistry and physics, and boasts more than 10 years as an electronics hobbyist, according to the court records.
Bailey maintains the Pocket Detective, or the device used by the Highway Patrol, shouldn't be utilized because it measures only the green light showing through the tint and that one color is only a small portion of the spectrum, he said.
'The machine doesn't meet the scientific standard required,' Bailey said.
Bailey and his son bought a Pocket Detective, disassembled and studied it before coming to their conclusions, the attorney said.
'All that machine measures is green light, which is only a part of the spectrum,' Bailey said. 'So, you can't say the window blocks out 70 percent of the light. You can only say it blocks out 70 percent of the green light, which is only a small part of the spectrum.'
Calling his son as an expert witness has been a rewarding experience for Bailey, the father of three sons.
The one (appellate) judge said, 'Before you start, I want to ask you a question. This has nothing to do with how our ruling is going to go, I just want to know. Is this your son?' And I said, 'Yes, it is.' He said, 'You must be very proud,' and I said 'Yeah, I am.'
© X-Pro 2007
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