A police officer in New Jersey is being investigated after allegedly trumping up charges against a driver after being given the finger. Footage of the interaction with the officer posted to YouTube appears to show inconsistencies with the officer’s story.
A driver named Nathan was pulled over in Westfield, New Jersey earlier this month. He believes that the officer started following him because he raised his middle finger as he was driving past his parked patrol car.
After being stopped, body camera footage obtained by the LackLuster YouTube channel shows Officer Ayad Taha telling the Honda Civic’s driver that he was clocked going 48 mph (77 km/h) in a 35 mph (56 km/h) zone.
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However, footage from Nathan’s dashcams suggest he was never traveling faster than the speed limit while in the vicinity of Officer Taha. Meanwhile, no information from the radar unit is available because the citation does not list it as being used.
That evidence isn’t necessary because a Careless Driving charge is left up to the discretion of an officer. Although Officer Taha says that it is worth $88 and amounts to a break for Nathan, the LackLuster YouTube channel claims that it also brings with it a penalty of 2 points on the driver’s license, despite carrying a lower burden of proof.
In the video, (which has been viewed 372,000 times since it went up less than a week ago) the driver says he will be fighting the citation, which he believes was issued to him improperly. Since then, the Westfield Police Department has launched an internal investigation into the actions of Officer Taha.
“A recent traffic stop conducted by one of our officers and posted to social media has been brought to my attention and was referred to our Internal Affairs/Professional Standards Unit,” Westfield Chief Christopher Battiloro said in a statement. “The allegations made in this video will be thoroughly and completely investigated, this to determine if the officer’s actions were lawful and proper.”