A 37-year-old Clark man is prepared to spend thousands defending himself from $220 speeding ticket cops issued him in January when, he contends, they pulled over the wrong vehicle.

Marek Kaplo tried to show police video footage from the dashboard and rear window cameras he has in his car — footage that shows he was not the driver Officer Samuel Fourre was after on Jan. 13, according to his lawyer, Josh McMahon of Westfield.

But McMahon said Westfield police refused to listen, or watch the footage.

Kaplo filed an internal affairs complaint but was told via letter that it wouldn’t be investigated until the ticket was decided in court. And the municipal prosecutor hasn’t dismissed the ticket, McMahon said.

“The video clearly, unequivocally, without question demonstrates that the police vehicle was attempting to stop another vehicle,” McMahon said at a recent court date.

Kaplo, a Polish immigrant and electrical engineer employed by the federal government, has had to miss work to attend court dates over seven months. McMahon said his client will end up spending several thousand dollars on attorneys’ fees to fight a ticket that would cost a fraction of that.

Some innocent people would just pay the ticket because it’s cheaper than fighting it, McMahon said, and that’s one of the problems in the municipal court system.

A 2018 report by the state judiciary found municipal courts — where judges and prosecutors are employed by the towns that collect any court fines — are too focused on lining towns’ coffers and not on seeing justice is done.

Westfield Police Chief Christopher Battiloro said the department is still in the process of reviewing the video and will likely decide before the next court date whether the video warrants the dismissal of the ticket. Once a summons is issued, the decision to dismiss is up to the municipal prosecutor, he said, but police could recommend it be dismissed.

There is also another option for Kaplo, Battiloro said. “He can go to court," he said, and fight it at trial.

Kaplo was driving in Westfield shortly before 1 a.m. Jan. 13 to try out his new radar detector, which beeps whenever a police cruiser is near, McMahon said.

Marek Kaplo's cameras show him driving the route shown above in blue. His attorney said he does not know why Kaplo took the detoured route. The officer said Kaplo was going north on Central Avenue.Google Maps

Officer Fourre was driving south on Central Avenue when he passed a car traveling north doing 52 or 54 mph in a 25 mph zone, he said during the video-recorded traffic stop. He followed the car as it turned onto Cacciola Place and eventually stopped Kaplo on South Avenue, according to the video.

But Kaplo’s dash cam video, provided by McMahon, does not show him traveling north on Central Avenue. He instead drove east on South Avenue and then south on Central Avenue for two blocks before turning onto Cacciola Place, McMahon said.

Kaplo’s rear camera does briefly show another car behind him on Cacciola Place, but it turned onto a side street a moment before the cruiser appeared in sight. McMahon believes that was likely the car Fourre intended to stop.

The police cruiser’s dash cam video, which McMahon also provided to NJ Advance Media, only starts recording when Fourre is about to pull over Kaplo’s vehicle.

During the stop, Kaplo denied speeding north on Central Avenue and said his dash cam would prove it. Fourre replied, “I’m not here to argue with you," the video shows.

Kaplo later took the video to the police station and filed the internal affairs complaint, McMahon said. The police response — that the complaint can’t be investigated until the ticket is adjudicated — is absurd and against state rules for internal affairs investigations, the attorney said.

McMahon said Kaplo and his first attorney, Todd Palumbo, showed Municipal Prosecutor Yvette Gibbons the video, but at a court date in June she said she did not have a copy. McMahon provided a copy, but at the most recent court date Gibbons said the case should now be transferred out of Westfield because of the IA complaints and a letter McMahon wrote threatening to file a complaint against her for pursuing a case without probable cause. Judge Parag Patel hasn’t ruled on her request.

Gibbons did not return requests for comment.

McMahon said Gibbons and Westfield police have had ample time to dismiss the ticket, and he wants the new acting county prosecutor, Lyndsay Ruotolo, to intervene now. Her office declined to comment Monday.

McMahon said he does not believe Ruotolo knows about the case and he hopes she will “affirm her commitment to protecting the rights of law-abiding immigrants in Union County by immediately ordering the Westfield municipal prosecutor to cease prosecuting persons unless and until the constitutionally-required probable cause is established by and through competent, admissible evidence.”

He also said he expects Ruotolo would “order the Westfield Police Department to re-write their unlawful Internal Affairs policy, which blatantly violates the Attorney General Guidelines.”

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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