Summary judgment is sought in speed-camera citations

GIRARD -- A class-action suit against the issuing of tickets from a camera set up to catch speeders here will go forward, with attorneys asking the court for a summary judgment.
The class-action suit was filed by Julie Sferra through her lawyers Brian P. Kish and David J. Betras of Canfield. The 11th District Court of Appeals granted Sferra's earlier request to stop hearings against her in her speeding case, but the order applied only to Sferra's hearing, not the rest of the class.
Now, Kish and Betras have asked the court to issue a summary judgment and rule that a municipal ordinance that classifies a speeding violation as a civil offense is unconstitutional. Citation issued from the camera are considered civil matters where no points are added to the ticketed individual's license.
The motion also ask the court to permanently stop the city from issuing any more photo radar speeding citations or holding any future hearings before a hearing officer designated to handle disputes over citations issued by the camera.
Seek return of fines
The motion asks that the city be made to stop collecting any future fines from citations issued by the camera. There is also a request that the city provide the names of all those who were fined from the camera and return the fine money to those who have paid.
The city, in a separate lawsuit against the camera, has already been ordered not to spend any fines collected from citations issued by the camera. Those funds must be kept in a separate interest-earning escrow account.
The city, in earlier court filings, has denied several issues addressed in the Sferra lawsuit.
The city denies that Girard's camera system fails to comply with Ohio traffic laws in the manner in which violators are notified of their violation. It denies that the system employs a hearing officer to handle the cases who is not a judge or magistrate elected or appointed according to the Ohio Constitution.
The city also denies that the city's ordinance creating the Automated Traffic Enforcement Division is unconstitutional and violates equal protection, due process, confrontation and separation of powers parts of the Ohio Constitution.