'Dismiss the case, he's a deputy's son': Police clerk accidentally sends order to scrap speeding ticket to local newspaper

A clerk in a US police department has admitted she mistakenly faxed a request to cancel a speeding ticket issued to the son of a deputy sheriff to the local newspaper.

Joann Reed told the Belleville News-Democrat that she accidentally sent the fax from the St Clair County Sheriff’s Department in Belleville, Illinois to the newspaper with a signed handwritten note saying 'dismiss the case.'

Reed had intended to send the three-page message to a Centreville village lawyer but her request went astray and landed in the Belleville News-Democrat newsroom.



Message error: Joann Reed sent a fax from the St Clair County Sheriff's Department in Belleville, Illinois (pictured) to the local newspaper

'The guy is the son of one of our deputies. Guilty. Period', Reed later told a News-Democrat reporter after being questioned about the fax.

She also insisted she had falsely suggested the 18-year-old ticketed motorist - Jonathan Yates was the son of a deputy sheriff and was in fact a college student she was trying to help out.

Reporters discovered that Yates - the son of Cerether White, a St. Clair County sheriff's deputy, was issued the $175 fine on August 18 for allegedly driving at 43mph in a 20 mph zone.

Scoop: Reporters at the Belleville News Democrat (pictured) were surprised to receive the fax calling on lawyers to 'dismiss the case'

Centreville's village lawyer, Carmen Durso, told the newspaper that he could not dismiss violations of the law - such as speeding tickets.

He said: 'I get calls like these all the time. I don't think it's unusual or strange.'

Reed, unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Alorton, Illinois in 2009,

Sheriff Mearl Justus, who employs both Reed and White said the matter would be fully investigated.

He said he said he would 'find out what it's about,' before deciding what to do.

He said: ''ll look at the whole thing and find out what it's about.

'If she (Reed) has to be disciplined, then she will be disciplined. I'll look at the whole thing. I'll take some action.'

The county's top prosecutor, Brendan Kelly, said his office had not received a request to cancel the ticket.