Traffic stop called ‘politically motivated’
By Jen Samuel, Managing Editor
HIGHTSTOWN — Two traffic violations issued by Detective Ben Miller, a member of the borough’s Police Department, against Robert Thibault were dismissed by West Windsor Municipal Court Judge Mary Brennan on Dec. 21.
Judge Brennan ruled that Detective Miller’s search of Mr. Thibault’s driving records was “without probable cause” and the subsequent Aug. 6, 2010, traffic stop was politically motivated and violated his civil rights.
The West Windsor judge presided over the case to avoid any possible conflict of interest in Hightstown.
Mr. Thibault became a member of the Hightstown Borough Council on Jan. 2.
However, back in 2010, Mr. Thibault was running for mayor. As part of his platform, he was an outspoken proponent of police consolidation of the Hightstown Police Department with East Windsor. During this time, a two-year independent study by Patriot Consulting found that the 1.2-square mile borough spent $2 million annually on police-related expenditures and could save $802,000 annually by outsourcing to the township.
On the morning of Aug. 6, 2010, as Mr. Thibault left his home on South Main Street, in his wife’s car, he said he realized that a police vehicle that had been parked across the street was following him, as previously reported in the Herald.
Mr. Thibault was then stopped and Detective Miller told him that he had already run his driver’s license and found that it had been suspended as a result of an incident in North Carolina, Mr. Thibault said. Detective Miller issued Mr. Thibault two tickets, one for driving while suspended and the other for failure to surrender his license while under suspension.
Judge Brennan called the traffic violations issued on Aug. 6, 2010, “purely politically motivated,” according to Mr. Thibault.
Detective Miller did not respond to the Herald’s request for a comment on the ruling as of press time.
"Judge Brennan was very pointed in her decision,” Mr. Thibault said, “saying that (Detective) Miller’s actions were ‘all about politics’ and intended to ‘discredit Mr. Thibault and influence the outcome of the mayoral election’ in the self-interest of the police department.”
Back on Aug. 9, 2010, Mr. Thibault said he received a call from Hightstown Municipal Court alerting him that the court appearance date on both of his local tickets was written one day late — for Aug. 12, when there was no court session scheduled, instead of the correct date of Aug. 11, as previously reported in the Herald.
If Mr. Thibault had arrived to court a day late for the two traffic violations, the municipal court could have issued a warrant for Mr. Thibault’s arrest. That’s when he said he contacted the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the FBI.
"Clearly, all this appeared to be a potential retaliation of my vocal support on the proposed police contract with East Windsor,” Mr. Thibault said back in August of 2010.
Mr. Thibault stated that he was surprised when told of the North Carolina traffic violations. He never lived in North Carolina, for instance. He then hired an attorney and within 10 days of the incident, the North Carolina charges were expunged as clerical errors, Mr. Thibault recalled, and the New Jersey Department of Motor Vehicles soon followed suit.
However, the Mercer County’s Prosecutor’s Office never dropped the charges, Mr. Thibault said, and that is when he started the process of discovery with his attorney, William Shipers, of New Brunswick.
Mr. Thibault requested a copy of the county prosecutor’s report on the incident in question in January 2011, however — it took a court order by Judge Brennan for the county to share that report with Mr. Thibault, he said.
Still, on Dec. 21, the charges were thrown out.
"She says it was all about politics and one of her statements was that ‘he laid in wait outside my house with the intention of discrediting me and influencing the municipal election,” Mr. Thibault said of Judge Brennan’s ruling.
"It has been and will continue to be for a long time a hardship for me and my family. I’m not a rich guy. I am lucky to have the attorney I have — who is charging me. But he also took it on because he recognized the volition of civil rights,” Mr. Thibault. “It has cost me tens of thousands of dollars to fight for my basic constitutional rights,” he said.
Of Detective Miller, Mr. Thibault said, “He was looking to find a way to arrest me.”
Of the hardship the incident caused upon his family, Mr. Thibault said, “We’ve always said that you need to stand up for yourself — you need to stand up for your rights — no matter what people say about you or the burden that you have to carry. (My daughter) learned a valuable lesson and it’s one we all should take to heart,” he said. “I thought it was important to stand up for my rights and for the rights that all of us have to speak our opinions and run for public office and not be afraid that the police — an arm of the government — is going to go after you.
"Frankly, I was just mad as hell. It made me angry that they thought they could get away with it. (They) thought I would drop out of the race or be intimidated . . . and I guess they thought I would give up . . . that I was just going to roll over and let this happen.”
Frank Gendron, the acting director of the Police Department, did not immediately return repeated calls for comment.
Mr. Thibault pondered if action would be taken against Detective Miller by the Police Department.
"I have tried not to generalize and I do not want to question the integrity of all of the police in Hightstown. It will be interesting to see what or if any action is taken against Detective Miller. I can’t believe that the good police officers, the professionals on the Hightstown police force, condoned this behavior. And, I hope the department demonstrates that they won’t tolerate this kind of behavior — the bad behavior — the unconstitutional behavior, of one officer.”
A corporate communications executive, Mr. Thibault has lived in Hightstown since 1997.