Lake Mead National Park Ranger Nails Scofflaw

 The story I'm about to tell you is absolutely true. I didn't think this kind of shit could happen in 2024. Not with body cams and allegedly- superior training.

Now as many of you know, I spent 25 years in law enforcement. As a result of that vast error in judgement- I conducted somewhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 traffic stops and went to a few thousand calls. Conducting the verbal part of a traffic stop is relatively simple. You contact the driver, tell the driver the reason for the stop, listen to the response, and decide if it's something you need to write a ticket for. Good cops shoot for compliance first without a ticket.

Anyone who told me the unvarnished truth on a traffic stop- never received a ticket. Somewhat rare but not unheard of. So those are my rules, unpublished for sure and not agreed upon by all. Those rules were clearly not communicated to the cop who stopped me on January 30, Officer Johnson.

I am travelling south on a highway that goes along the west side of Lake Mead, near Las Vegas. I am also within the confines of Lake Mead National Park, policed by federal park rangers.

On this particular day, 3 trucks, service trucks which are caravaning, ignore a yield sign and pull out in front of me on the highway and proceed to do something akin to 10 MPH under the posted speed of 50 MPH. I follow them for a few miles when I realize that I may die of old age before I reach my destination. So I pass all three.

Instead of continuously solid yellow lines, the park uses those centerline rumble dots, worn and faded from the Vegas sun. Traffic is sparse and non-existent- because it is 50 degrees outside which is bitterly cold for the people who inhabit this part of the desert. 

This act of passing defiance pisses off the lead caravanner guy driving some sort of pickup truck fitted with one of those metal boxes with all of the smaller cargo doors. The guy starts chasing us. He is no match for our car and so he never really gets too close- but it causes us to speed a little- maybe 10 or 15 over for a mile or two to stay far enough ahead of him. That's when we see Officer Johnson.  

Officer Johnson flashes his light at us. He turns to apprehend us. I choose to pull over in a boat ramp area which is off the highway and much safer but it's 1/2 mile down the road. I make it there before he gets directly behind us. This highway has no shoulder.

Johnson doesn't pull us over from behind, he intercepts us like he is blocking our escape. He jumps out of the car, excited, and the first thing out of his mouth is "are there any guns in the car?!" I answer him. 

Johnson just sort of shouts things at me, like "why are you driving here and where are you going?" Not once does he mention why he stopped us. He collects my documents and he is so over the top aggressive, I am actually worried that this nutjob is going to try and take me to jail if I offer any resistance. So I distract him with some other issues, try to get him to calm down. Tell him I am a retired cop. Two blue hairs for chrissakes, not Bonnie and Clyde.

I wasn't trying to get out of a ticket, I knew that was a done deal. I was trying to avert a trip to jail.

Eventually he returns with a ticket for "unsafe operation" which I think is some oddball term for a boater speeding through the buoys on the lake except that this ticket is 380 dollars and akin to careless driving. I asked him what I did wrong. He says, "you were doing 57 mph in a 45 zone, you touched the yellow, and you eluded me."

That's when I knew Officer Johnson was not only a bad cop and full of shit, but that he made up a story to suit his outlandish behavior. I may have been guilty of the speed and probably was but nothing else. I noted he had a body cam on. Thank God I thought.

I also believed that it was the motorist I passed that phoned this in but not a word about that from Officer Johnson.

You do not receive a court date when you are ticketed by the Lake Mead Rangers. The park uses some clearinghouse in Texas which issues you a summons if you have not paid the ticket. So I wait. After two months, I call them. "Do you wish to contest the ticket?" Why yes I do. The clearinghouse says the ticket was never turned in. I think, maybe Johnson finally came to his senses.

In late August, I receive a court date in the mail. Nothing else. I finally email the rangers office and ask if I am entitled to discovery, if this is a trial or initial appearance, or just what the hell this is. The rangers office emails me later and says there is a government official who will review your case and offer a plea bargain. They give me a phone number. I email back and say I plan on going to court, I will talk to the official there.

So I travel the 150 miles to federal court in Las Vegas. It's a total pain in the ass, finding parking, evading the immigration line, getting searched, and you must provide ID. Then find your court room. I make it with 10 minutes to spare. There my case is called. There is a government official, I presume a lawyer, who takes me into the hallway and reads what Officer Johnson wrote.

There for the first time, my wife and I hear an almost entirely different version of events. This time Officer Johnson writes that he received a call of a reckless driver who passed three cars and nearly hit two bicyclists on the road. (There were no bicyclists) He then located the vehicle traveling at 57 mph in a 45 zone, which then crossed a double yellow line on the highway, before turning into a parking area whilc traveling 30 mph in a 15 zone in the parking lot. 

Wow. I was pissed. My wife was just sick. What kind of cop makes this shit up? In my day, a soon to be fired cop, that's who.

I told the "government official" this 2nd version of Officer Johnson's was also untrue, and the body cam would bear this out. I was going to go to trial. He offered me a deal where I would pay a 20 dollar fine plus court costs and the whole thing would go away and not be reported anywhere. 

I am a coward. I should have gone to trial. People like Johnson should be rooted out and fired before they damage other motorists. In my day as chief, I would have tried to retrain Johnson while placing him on probation- but let him go if the retraining didn't take hold. 

I took the deal. So 50 bucks and I was done with this nonsense.

I don't travel through Lake Mead Park anymore. I go through Henderson/Las Vegas. 

In my day, law enforcement was still an honorable profession. We tried to be decent but I am sure we failed from time to time. But what I never did was make some shit completely up, overcharging some motorist because I was angry or agitated. Cops call this contempt of cop. Apparently, Officer Johnson's tolerance for adversity is very low. 

I feel bad that all of those tickets I handed out over the years probably did little more than raise insurance rates for people already burdened by excessive insurance costs. I often wonder what good it did. 

I hope Officer Johnson comes to his senses. I sure have.