Prince George’s County Councilwoman Found Guilty of Reckless Driving
Toles told police she was distracted using her phone and putting on makeup while driving close to 105 mph.
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Prince George’s Councilwoman Karen Toles has been found guilty of reckless driving and fined $402 after being caught speeding along the Capital Beltway earlier this year.
A judge found Toles guilty of the charges on Wednesday. In addition to the fine, she must also pay $33 in court fees and was given probation, according to NBC Washington.
The charges stem from a February incident when Toles was caught speeding along the Capital Beltway close to 105 mph while driving a county-issued vehicle.
In court this week, police testified that Toles told them she was distracted using her phone and putting on makeup as her vehicle cruised 50 mph above the speed limit.
Toles will not have points added to her driving record and will be given a chance to have the incident wiped from her driving record if she goes a year without a traffic offense.
At the time of the incident, Toles was fined $90 and given a warning. She was subsequently stripped of using her county-issued vehicle until she completed a driver improvement class and faced additional charges after Prince George’s County Police reviewed the infraction.
Sonia Dasgupta
4:35 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Is a $402 fine a fair punishment? Toles was also stripped of her county-owned vehicle.
Sinval
5:58 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Not fair
Albert Van Thournout
7:43 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
No, it was not fair. The fine should have been double that and would have been were she not one of our precious county officials.
Albert Van Thournout
7:44 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
No, it was not fair. The fine should have been doubled at least and would have been were she not one of our precious county officials.
chl
8:31 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Are you kidding -- No, of course its not fair. People in every other county are saying "this is why we wouldn't live in PG"
Michael B. Cron
4:05 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
The fine should have been much higher. A speed camera ticket in D.C. is $140.00 for going 12 miles over the limit. She should have gotten points on her license and never be able to use "our" tax payer paid county vehicle ever again, period. If this crime would have been committed by any non-politician, they would have not gotten away with it.
Mandy
5:04 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Seriously?!?! If this was ANYONE else she would have gotten points, not a probational period. She admitted to speeding, putting on make-up, and talking on a cell phone.
Oh, and is she included in the county employees getting a $3,000 bonus??
Dana Schwartz
5:13 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Is this typical punishment for being caught going over 100 mph on the beltway, and admitting driving while distracted, talking on a phone and PUTTING ON MAKEUP??? A minor fine, no points, and the ability to have the incident expunged from her record? Sounds incredible. Was there any justification given for such a light sentence? More details from the court proceedings needed,
Joshua Garner
6:35 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Dana
This goes back to February and seemed to have been a pretty drawn out process. I believe she either had the option of paying the fine early on or going through the court process, which likely gave the option of having no points put on her record and a higher fine including court costs.
Sharp Shooter
10:12 pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012
Other news sources were reporting that she did, in fact, pay the initial 90 fine and then tried to argue that any additional punishment(s) would be double-jeopardy. To me it is somewhat mind boggling that she stills has her drivers license. It's not my call but I feel like she was easily just as much of a danger on the road as a drunk driver - and really drunk at that.
Albert Van Thournout
7:46 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Yes, it sounds as though she was offering putting on lipstick and texting as an acceptable excuse rather than an explanation.
Richard Veselich
9:27 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Richard V.
As a PG resident I feel the arresting patrolman,the judge and the rest of the PG council members turned their backs on the existing laws and levels of punishment that would have been levied against the rest of the population PERIOD Speed was not the only law broken in this case.
Angel
9:50 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Don't become to self-righteous and judgmental. Think of your commute daily some says when you are driving 10-30 it more miles over the the posted limit. Is it then okay because you weren't caught.
Remember the morning's you drove putting on lipstick or texting, or whatever distracts you that day. Don't forget the daily road rage when we somehow forget that it's not our private road space.
She was wrong, and yes she had her day in court. The outcome may not seem fair to you but I believe she has had her day of punishment and humiliation.
So take your self-righteous criticisms and remember the next time you are out there driving irresponsibly quite possibly on a daily basis, are you any better.?
Danny
11:53 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
well, she was driving "close to 105" -- let's be conservative and say 100mph.
the beltway's speed limit is 55... so she was at least 45mph over, not the "10-30" that you seem to think people drive over the limit on a regular basis (10 over, sure... 30 over, not so much, not even in PG county).
i have never driven 100mph in my life, nor have i been a passenger when someone else was driving that fast. i think the fastest i've ever driven is 80 on a road with a limit of 75 (rural interstate).
driving 100mph is not normal and very dangerous (not to mention harmful to the vehicle that my hard-earned money helped pay for, and wasteful of the gas that, again, i helped pay for) and, accordingly, ms. toles is deserving of my outrage and disgust.
Albert Van Thournout
1:24 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
How interesting, Ms. Angel. For your information, I don't do either texting or lipstick anywhere. Most people I see on the road are not either. Are you telling us something about your own practices? Why are you so intent on defending this woman who obviously got off easy considering the reckless actions she took which endangered not only her but all those she came upon?
Sharp Shooter
3:00 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
Angel must be a relative of Tole's - if not Tole herself. Nobody, absolutely nobody has a valid excuse for doing what she was doing. Perhaps it would be a more misgiving situation had she only been guilty of one of the violations.
suri bellen
6:45 am on Sunday, June 24, 2012
OMG Angel, are you kidding! I have never put makeup on while driving, not even lipstick. And I have never driven 30 miles over the speed limit, never mind the fact that she was doing 50 miles over. She already had 2 points on her license! That was her warning! It's obvious she does not care about the safety of others on the road. Her license should have been suspended - period!
john mullins
12:55 pm on Sunday, June 24, 2012
Yes, you are right. I immediately thought of all the times I've raced along the highway at over 100 miles per hour, barely realizing it because I was chatting on my cell phone or was otherwise distracted. And of course, I absolutely expect the police to give me a pass on such behavior. And I further expect not to be judged harshly by anyone else.
Of course, I'm a complete imbecile, so that has to be taken into account.
Tex
11:19 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
Total B.S. If Joe Six Pack was caught driving 105 miles per hour, he would be rotting in jail.
Walter Darnall
11:25 am on Friday, June 22, 2012
I don't have so much of a problem with the amount of the fines ($90 + $403 + $33 court fees), stripped of use of county-owned vehicles (until completion of driver improvement course), personal humiliation, etc., -- but no points on her driving record? I don't understand this, nor do agree with it.
According to an abreviated DMV Point System in Maryland table I consulted online, Speeding (20 mph or greater over the 65 mph speed limit) carries a fine plus 5 points against one's driver's license. SInce she driving at 105 MPH, which was 50 MPH over the posted speed limit (not to mention not paying full time and attention, by using cell phone and putting on makeup), the posted limit must have been 55 MPH. As such, I would think she would have been assessed at least 5 points. I can only assume Maryland law allows discretion by the judge to waive points.
Cf
11:38 pm on Friday, June 22, 2012
It it were a normal citizen, we'd be in jail, no driver's license, insurance, etc. Worrying about her humiliation? I guess she should have thought about that before her actions, not after. Think how many people she could have killed. That didn't seem to concern her.
Walter Darnall
1:00 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2012
Now that councilwoman Toles has been convicted, I expect her car insurance premium will increase substantially. Possibly, the company she's currently insured with might even drop her, since I read in a related article she already has two points against her license.
Dana Schwartz
11:12 pm on Saturday, June 23, 2012
Without points assessed, and with the conviction removed from her record in a year, will her insurance company ever know?
Earl Kepler
8:15 am on Sunday, June 24, 2012
Tole deserves to lose her job. The judge deserves a recall. Angel must be on the take.
Jeffrey Yorke
1:11 pm on Sunday, June 24, 2012
Toles is a convicted idiot. Based on her statement to police at the time of arrest, she should have been charged with two more driving violations - cellchat while driving and farding(applying make-up) or distracted driving.
She has stupidly confused driving as a right and not the privilage that it is. Clearly she is not smart enough to obey laws so she should not by in a job where she votes on their passage.
Hope her poor district voters remember that in November. Prince Georgians do not need to be embarrassed by another elected numbskull.