July 27th 2000
Circuit Court
P.O. Box 114
Portland, OR 97207

To whom it may concern,

I apologize as I am writing on the 27th of July from Newport, Oregon and was scheduled to appear in Circuit Court room 106 yesterday at 8:30. I was unable to make the 3 hour commute from Newport where I now work as a commercial fisherman to Portland due to a vehicle failure. I was upset, thinking I could have gotten my ticket seriously reduced or dismissed if I were able to appear. I was not overly concerned however because of the phone in option, which proved a miserable failure contributing to the total lack of communication thus far. At 5:30 a.m. yesterday the 26th I attempted to call knowing I would at least be very late if I could make it at all, but was unable to find my way to anyone it not being your phone hours. I then called back at 9:00 a.m. and navigated my way to the pleading guilty with reduced fee area but was put on hold and waited in excess of 20 minutes before hanging up. I called several more times throughout the day during your stated phone hours at the number given on my ticket: 1-503-988-3233 and was never able to get through to any person on any extention. During one call at 3:00 p.m. I waited 40 minutes on hold.

If it is not too late I would like to plea guilty and ask for a reduced fine and any late fees and/or records to be dismissed. As the officer informed me, running a yellow light is against the law and falls under 811.265, failure to obey a traffic control device. I was acting in a manner I thought safest. The light turned yellow as I approached it going the speed limit and the calculated stopping time had I chose that legal option, in my judgment would have left me partially in the intersection, not to mention some whiplash. I think the greater crime committed here was driving too late at night and belonging to the wrong demographic. I was returning from my girlfriends house just a few blocks away from my former residence in Portland and had been laying in the grass in her back yard. Just as I left, I had an allergy episode and didn’t have any of my prescription Claritin to ease the effects. Because of the fact I had been sneezing for the 10 minutes prior to me be pulled over the officers handling the theoretical violation assumed I smoked marijuana and acted with according bias, were very disrespectful, paranoid and dishonest, a shame and a blemish to the entire profession which I found quite friendly and reasonable until that day. But it is true, I did run that yellow light at 2:15 in the morning, so my plea is guilty.

This entire affair seems quite ridiculous, I would have never expected legal problems to arise from running a yellow light in a first world nation, but here we are and I’m very sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused.

Information concerning my infraction is as follows:

number on side: Z
Name: Benjamin Alan Eder
lic: OR
Address: P.O. Box 721
Newport, OR 97365
date of offense: June 26th 2000 2:15 a.m.
location: S.E. 52nd and Holgate
involving: 1986 Toyota Van vwg Silver

Please feel free to call with any questions:

Thank you,



Ben Eder