Andrew Wolfson

@adwolfson

Ronald Clayton was whizzing down Dixie Highway at 57 mph on June 24 when veteran Metro Louisville Police traffic Officer Ray Sutherland pulled him over for speeding.

But Clayton seemed to catch a break when Sutherland wrote him up for going only 5 mph over the limit in the 40 mph zone.

Four months later, his fortune continued when he got a letter from the court saying the charge had been dismissed and that his $179 in fines and court costs were being refunded.

It turned out that Clayton was one of 65 motorists whom Sutherland cited in June and July for exceeding the speed limit by a mere 5 mph — even if they were going much faster.

In what appears to have been some kind of protest by Sutherland, he omitted the posted speed and driver’s speed from the citation, even though both are required by law.

As a result, the Jefferson County Attorney’s office dismissed charges against 41 motorists, saying their citations were “deficient,” and the rest of the drivers had their cases dismissed for “low speed” by district court judges because they appeared to have barely violated the law.

In fact, according to a secret code used by Sutherland and recorded on each citation, some of the motorists exceeded the speed limit by as much as 35 mph — “dangerous speeds,” said First Assistant County Attorney Julie Lott Hardesty.

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Sutherland, who joined the department in 1988 and was named its officer of the year in 2010, remains on active duty in the traffic unit but is under investigation by the Public Integrity Unit, spokeswoman Alicia Smiley said.

Sutherland didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment, and neither did his supervisor, Lt. Joe Seelye.

David Mutchler, president of the River City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 614, described Sutherland as a veteran officer with an “outstanding work ethic,” but he and Smiley, citing a state law that prohibits disclosures about pending police disciplinary matters, said they couldn’t comment on the investigation or Sutherland’s motives.

Some judges and lawyers, including District Judge Sean Delahanty, said they believe Sutherland was protesting County Attorney Mike O’Connell’s Drive Safe Louisville program, in which motorists can avoid convictions by attending an online traffic school. Through the end of October, 24,848 drivers have participated over 3 ½ years, raising nearly $4 million, of which about $1.9 million went to the county attorney’s office.

Delahanty, who opposes Drive Safe Louisville and has tried to shut it down, said Sutherland and other officers resent being a fundraising arm for O’Connell’s office.

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“He and other officers believe DSL is a glorified speed trap and do not appreciate their job being demeaned,” Delahanty said.

Attorney Paul Gold, who practices frequently in traffic court, said officers have told him they also oppose the program because it eliminates their discretion.

In an email, Hardesty said, “It’s unclear what Ofc. Sutherland’s motives are, but with traffic fatalities on the rise, the motives seem petty when weighed against the public safety.”

She said the deficient citations were discovered during a routine review. They stood out in part because it is rare for officers to cite motorists for going anything less than 10 mph over the limit.

She said prosecutors felt it was their duty, “legally and ethically," to set aside the convictions, even though some of the fees refunded would have gone to Drive Safe Louisville and the office.

In an interview, Clayton, the motorist cited on Dixie Highway, said Sutherland didn’t explain why he was cited for going only 5 mph over.

“He didn't say much of anything,” Clayton said in an interview. He said he was pleased to get his money back but that “the whole thing was kind of weird.”

Sutherland listed a four digit code on each citation; the first two numbers apparently were meaningless, while the last two record the driver’s actual speed.

Clayton’s citation, for example, is marked “4357.”

Other drivers were going faster. The code for Angela Howard, who was cited for going 5 mph over on the Watterson Expressway on June 2, said she was going 87 mph, while the code for Arleatha Hayes said she was going 75 when she was stopped the same day. Neither could be reached for comment.

Officer Clarence Beauford, a prolific ticket writer who also works in the traffic unit, said in an interview that he didn’t know what motivated him. Beauford said he has no problems with Drive Safe Louisville, which also has generated $621,000 for the circuit court clerk’s office and about $1.2 million for the vendor that runs it. More than 90 county attorneys have similar programs, Hardesty said.

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Sutherland, who has worked in the traffic unit about 20 years, is considered one of the department’s top accident reconstructionists, according to one of his former bosses, Doug Sweeney, now Audubon Park’s police chief.

Sweeney nominated him as Metro Louisville’s officer of the year based on his “wide range of success” in educating fellow police officers, prosecutors and the public and his loyalty to the men and women of the department.

“I’ve always tried to be there for the younger officers that are coming into the traffic unit,” Sutherland said at the time. “Sometimes they’ll get cases and ask, ‘What do you think about this?' ”

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189 or awolfson@courier-journal.com