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A Superior Court judge recently said a driver in Roxbury couldn't be found guilty of driving with illegal tinted windows, because there was no measurable evidence he violated New Jersey's "safety glass" law.

(FILE PHOTO BY PHIL LANOUE | FOR THE STAR LEDGER)

Roxbury wanted $54 of Jesse Wolosky's money for driving through the township with tinted windows. Instead, his lawyer wound up with $21,502.20 of the township's.

Ever since Wolosky, a Sparta resident, began fighting the April 13 ticket -- ultimately winning the battle late last year -- he's been filing public-records requests, seeing how many other tinted-window tickets get handed out. Police Chief James Simonetti has said he won't have his officers stop issuing the tickets, even though a judge ruled Roxbury didn't have a way to test if the tinting on a car causes "undue or unsafe distortion of visibility."

And that effort put into motion a public records fight.

According to the Daily Record, which first reported on the $21,502.20 reward Tuesday, Wolosky had been trying to get his hands on an audio recording from 2013, when Franklin Borough Councilman David Fanale was pulled over. Fanale later notoriously took to Facebook with anti-cop rants that brought him statements of protest from police.

In June, Wolosky asked the town in a public-records request for its regulations, general orders and policies on police reports, according to a court order issued in October. In response, he got a three-page description of officers' general duties, including the duty to prepare reports.

That didn't satisfy Wolosky, and in a back-and-forth with the township's records custodian, he said so, asking again for any document "that specifies when police reports are to be prepared and/or the contents of police reports." The town said after multiple searches, it couldn't find any such records. It did send him a list of 78 policies.

Wolosky filed a complaint alleging the township had violated common law and the Open Public Records Act request -- and lost, with a court ruling in August there was nothing to suggest the town had relevant documents it didn't disclose.

But Wolosky kept going. He filed a motion for reconsideration, saying he'd since identified 38 policies that should have been provided. An appellate court agreed.

It also shot down Roxbury's arguments that Wolosky's request was overly broad, and that combing through the records on the level Wolosky wanted would have amounted to "research" not required by the Open Public Records Act. The court said "search" would have been enough to turn them up.

"It took (Wolosky) an original OPRA request, numerous follow-up emails, two amended answers from the custodian, and a separate informal request to another public agency in order to obtain the dispatch audio recording that (the township) should have produced within seven business days but denied all along that it even existed," Wolosky's attorney wrote in the motion for reconsideration. "In doing so, (the township) unlawfully place(d) the burden upon (Wolosky) to press them into compliance with OPRA)."

The appellate court also agreed Wolosky was entitled to recoup attorney fees, and the $21,502.20 amount was decided on in January.

Messages left for Wolosky and for Township Manager Christopher Raths Wednesday have not yet been returned.

In December, Wolosky said he's been in touch with attorneys interested in representing people receiving tinted-window tickets, hoping to use his court victory as a precedent for their own.

One attorney, Michael Botton, described the ruling on his website as "huge for all people who receive tinted window tickets in New Jersey."

"It feels like maybe the police department isn't getting the point," Wolosky said. He did say, however, Roxbury had often been issuing 10-15 tickets a week in recent years, and the number seemed to dip to a few less since his case.

Simonetti said in December he doesn't believe his officer erred in issuing a summons.

"I feel there's a purpose for not having tinted windows -- it's an officer safety factor," Simonetti said. "Even light tinting can make it very hard to see into a window as an officer approaches."

-- NJ Advance Media reporter Ben Horowitz contributed to this story.



Louis C. Hochman may be reached at lhochman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @LouisCHochman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.