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Last updated on Thursday, April 10, 2014
(BLOOMFIELD) - Indiana State Police Trooper Eric Nash was out on patrol on a gray Thursday morning last November when he clocked a speeder going 71 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone.
He gave the driver a break - and wrote Gary Baxter, of Washington, a ticket.
The Greene County Daily World reports, as the trooper walked back to his car Baxter said he'd see the trooper in court for a jury trial.
On Tuesday morning, Baxter got his day in court, and he lost. He was found guilty of speeding on State Road 57 south of the old Lighthouse Junction and north of Newberry in the area of the Prairie Chapel Church.
If Baxter had paid his ticket, it would have cost him a total of $126.50 -- an $8 fine plus $118.50 in court costs. Since a jury found him guilty of the speeding infraction, Baxter is going to have to pay a total of $618.50.
When a traffic ticket goes to a jury trial, the jury not only hands down a verdict but they determine the amount of the fine.
In this case, the range was anywhere from zero up to a $500 fine, and the jury sent a message, assessing Baxter a $500 fine, and he still owes the same court costs of $118.50 for the total of $618.50.
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