Decepticon cop is free

| September 5, 2014

Decepticon Cop

Lawyer Russell Matson, the defense attorney of the fellow who was arrested for driving a Decepticon Police car in Massachusetts writes to tell us that charges against his client have been dropped;

Update Sept 4th: The case was dismissed at a clerk magistrate’s hearing!

The police prosecutor wanted the charge to go forward, and argued strenuously that my client was a legitimate threat to public safety, and had criminal intent.

I argued that my client did absolutely nothing wrong, and certainly did nothing that met the criminal statute.

Fortunately, the clerk magistrate did not accept the argument of the police officer prosecuting the case, and also did not think that decorating your Maserati in a fashion similar to a police car met the statute for impersonation of a police officer. Dress up is not impersonation.

This is the best possible outcome for the client. A case dropped at a clerk magistrate’s hearing (a show cause hearing) means that no criminal complaint was ever formally issued, and the client will have no record.

And this is a victory for common sense over police authority.

Category: Police

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GDContractor

Good. Now I can proceed with my plan. I’m going to get an old bread truck, paint it tan, and paint “MRAP” in big black letters down the side of it. Chevy will be so jealous.

Gravel

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

A Proud Infidel®™

DUDE, I was thinking about buying an old step van and painting it black with “SWAP” in big white letters on the side. I thought it would be a hit at flea markets and swap meets!

UpNorth

I’ll bet you can sell it to the PD that this guy works for.

NHSparky

Cops sure are jealous of their little rice bowl, aren’t they?

AW1 Tim

Why yes, yes they are.

Gravel

Yep

Charles

Well you know when crap like this happens.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/video/7593004-fake-cop-pulls-over-woman-in-plano-rapes-her/

They do get a little freaked about people pretending to be them

Gravel

Kind of silly to paint up your Maserati like that, but honestly if the guy didn’t try to pull over cars, and didn’t identify himself as a cop, then the only thing I see is having more money than sense.

Now if he wants to buy me a new Permobil C350 electric wheelchair to replace my ailing, old one … and spare me the trips to the VA … I’d consider that a better use of his money. LOL

Gravel

I forgot to add … this was clearly a situation of cops, once again, trying to overreach and find a crime where no crime existed.

gitarcarver

To be fair, he didn’t paint the car.

He “dipped” or “plasti-dipped” it using a spray product that can be peeled off.

I agree that dipping a $55,000 car is somewhat silly and a waste of time, but there are a lot worse ways that you can express your creativity that do a lot more harm and a hundred bucks of plasti-dip

Gravel

Correction noted.

And I actually like that product.

Green Thumb

I bet Commander Phil Monkress of All-Points Logistics is pumped.

Less hassle for him claiming that he is a Brevard County Sheriffs Deputy. Palmer (of the Ballsack) as well claiming that he was an FBI Agent.

nbcguy54

I read this a while back. Apparently Indiana cops go to the same school as the Mass cops:

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2014/06/30/joke-driver-sues-impd-officers-bumper-sticker/11805127/

Gravel

Pure stupidness.

My home wireless is named DEA SURVEILLANCE VAN 13. And, while it is heavily secured it is discoverable with any wi-fi device.

Does that mean I’m impersonating DEA agents? Hell no. It means I live in a high meth, pill, and heroin trafficking area (rural Ohio) and find it amusing to screw with my neighbors.

I’m really, really tired of law enforcement overstepping the bounds of common sense, let alone the law and constitutional rights.

Duncan McDonut

My home wireless is named DEA SURVEILLANCE VAN 13.

I got mine named TROJAN HORSE VIRUS.

Gravel

hahahaha that’s good.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

I’m glad I’m not the only one with oddly named wireless….my second network is named Dick McPlenty’s House of Desire

I think I like your name better though as I have a stoner two doors down and she’s the most paranoid person I’ve ever met….

Gravel

That ones pretty good too

AW1Ed

You can have your Honda CBR1000 painted up in Repsol livery, but that doesn’t make you Dani Pedrosa.

JacktheJarhead

That Picture is from Wollaston Beach in Quincy and the Quincy Cops are VERY territorial. I could see them pulling him over and asking WTF, but if the guy was not doing anything wrong, WTF? There are plenty of people riding around in Wanna-Be Crown Vics with the spotlights on the side. I don’t see them pulling them over.

Matson Law (@matsonlawoffice)

It was the Braintree police that pulled him over in this case, and a Braintree Lieutenant police prosecutor that was pushing for a criminal complaint, but yes, it could be interpreted as an aggressive turf move.

Just an Old Dog

I find it really Ironic that the cops that pushed this were from a town called “Braintree”..
Apparently there has been a catastrophic crop failure.

Songtan1

Now that was FUNNY111

Gravel

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA Most excellent.

Susan

I have a slightly different take. I think we will hear from this guy again when he does pull someone over; or worse, when someone doesn’t call the police because they see that car and think the police are there.

Anyone who would affirmatively paint their car this way has issues. I can see if he bought it that way at some auction, but no, he did this intentionally. He gets off on making people think he is a cop. Soon, getting them to slow down won’t be enough.

OWB

Yep. But at least then the pd will get to keep the car, maybe?

Veritas Omnia Vincit

He’s a movie buff, an extreme movie buff to be sure.

But he’s no more dangerous than the idiots who paint their car like Dale Jr.’s and drive to Lowe’s for plant food.

The Dead Man

I think I’d be more pissed seeing the cops drive that expensive a car, especially out here where we have such great stories such as, “SWAT Loses M4 after bust” and “Hero cop turns out to be sex offender”. What I’m saying is, it’s really not that hard to realize that thing’s not actually a cop car with even a cursory glance.

Dennis - not chevy

It has happened. A long time ago on an Air Force Base far, far away, we vehicle maintenance types had to take USAF police vehicles out onto the interstate highway to ensure we had fixed them correctly. The cops didn’t want to get into a situation in which they couldn’t respond because the car wouldn’t go fast enough. One day one of my troops was testing a cop car when he drove past a fender bender. Every police agency in the state had to answer as to why a cop car just drove by without stopping. The car was clearly marked USAF Security Police. After cooler heads prevailed, I was told only I was to drive the cop cars on the highway and I was to put “off-duty” signs in the window; as if they could be read at 70 mph. I was also told to stop (as if I wouldn’t) and render aid and assistance (again, as if I wouldn’t) if I came upon a crash. If I was off duty and a cop car needed testing, the police had to provide an on duty SF member (SP back then) to ride in the car with the mechanic (as if they had nothing better to do).
How about the folks who don’t pull over because they don’t believe it’s a real cop car behind them? Didn’t a phony cop pull people over in the MA, VT, NH area back in the early ’80’s? And, I believe there was another phony cop pulling people over in IL in the late ’80’s. I could be mistaken and I don’t want to spread unfound rumors. I do remember my sister telling me about it and, the way she drives, the next time she gets stopped by the police won’t be the first.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

This is a guy with lots of money and a love of movies about robots….that’s it.

Nothing more, nothing less. If the LEOs of Quincy here in my great home state of the PRoM (People’s Republic of Massachusetts) would stop worrying about law abiding citizens and actually arrest some actual criminals then maybe Quincy wouldn’t be more dangerous than the median violent crime incident rating for the US.

(full disclosure US median is 3.9/1,000 Quincy is 4.3/1,000 — my town is 2.0/1,000 in western mass)

Judie Cole

What’s really funny to me, is that car is sitting on Wollaston Beach in Quincy, where I live. I wish I could have seen it. But seriously…a Maserati?

Eric

“I’m filing a criminal complaint against this individual because his car looks like a police vehicle.”

“What I will do is, once he is found guilty, impound his car, so I can put lights on it myself and turn it into a real PD car.”

“Why? Because what LEO wouldn’t want to drive around on duty all day in a Maserati….”