Former Hightstown Mayor Candidate Contests Tickets, Judge Calls For More Evidence

A former Hightstown mayoral candidate was in court on Wednesday to appeal two police traffic citations he claims are invalid and were issued just hours after he endorsed political candidates who favored consolidating Hightstown and East Windsor’s police departments.

Rob Thibault and his attorney, appearing before West Windsor Municipal Court Judge Mary S. Brennan, told Brennan that they are still awaiting case discovery documents from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, in addition to both Hightstown and Robbinsville's police departments.

Brennan said she will issue her own request for the discovery materials.

 “I don’t want this to be the case that we’re putting off, putting off and putting off,” Brennan before granting a short extension until May 11 at 3 p.m.

According to Thibault, it all started one morning in August 2010, when he drove his wife’s car out of the couple’s driveway on South Main Street and headed for Borough Hall.

Thibault said Hightstown Police Officer Benjamin Miller was parked on his street and pulled out behind him.

When Thibault arrived at the municipal complex, he said he got out of the car as Miller turned on the cruiser’s flashing lights.

“Detective Miller pulled in behind me yelling at me to get back in my car,” Thibault said after court on Wednesday.

When Thibault asked what the problem was, Miller told him that he was driving with a suspended license. Thibault said he received two tickets: one for driving with a suspended license and one for failure to surrender a suspended license.

Thibault says he did not know his license was suspended. When Miller told him the suspension stemmed from failing to appear in a North Carolina court, Thibault did some investigating.

He discovered that a clerical input error following a traffic stop in North Carolina had mistakenly attached a traffic citation to his New Jersey license, even though the vehicle in question wasn’t Thibault’s, nor was he driving. Thibault says he could also prove that he wasn’t in North Carolina at the time of the incident.

North Carolina officials subsequently expunged Thibault’s traffic record and New Jersey officials acknowledged the underlying mistake by reinstating his license at no charge.

 Thibault said the Hightstown traffic citations still stand because officials argue he should have known his license was suspended.

Thibault said he may have received a letter from the state but he does not remember getting one. 

The day before Miller pulled him over, Thibault said he had issued a press release endorsing two Democratic candidates for Hightstown Council because they also supported consolidating municipal police services into East Windsor, a move that could have jeopardized the jobs of Hightstown police officers. Consolidation could save the borough hundreds of thousands of dollars, Thibault claims.

He also said a court clerk called him after she noticed a discrepancy in Miller’s court paperwork. Thibault had been given paperwork to appear in court on a Thursday, but the correct date was actually the day before, a Wednesday. Had Thibault failed to show up on the proper day, the court might have already issued a warrant for his arrest, he said.

Also, just hours after he was cited, a caller placed an anonymous phone call to the local newspaper alerting them to Thibault’s trouble with police.

“If it was all coincidence, I probably should have played the lottery that week,” Thibault said on Wednesday.