By Mike Scarcella and Daniel Newhauser
The D.C. Court of Appeals today ruled on a weighty matter: the removal and destruction of a vehicle mobilization unit--more commonly known as a boot.
Following a bench trial in the D.C. Superior Court, three men were convicted on charges of maliciously destroying a boot attached to a Lincoln Town Car with a crowbar and sledgehammer. Two of the men—Robert Thomas and Reginald Vincent—appealed. The third man, who told police he owned the car, did not appeal.
All three defendants argued at trial that, yes, the boot was removed. But it wasn’t “injured” or “destroyed.” Judge Zinora Mitchell-Rankin wasn’t convinced. In May 2008, she sentenced Thomas and Vincent to 180 days in jail—with all but 15 days suspended.
Mitchell-Rankin found disassembly of the boot “caused it to lose the character of what it was. It was no longer a boot when all was said and done.”
A three-judge appellate panel—Senior Judge James Belson and Associate Judges John Fisher and Kathryn Oberly—heard the appeal in September. Today, they affirmed the lower court’s decision.
“The disassembly of the ‘boot’ was undoubtedly a significant detriment to that device’s use in traffic and parking law enforcement,” Belson wrote in the Dec. 10 decision. By analogy, the judge noted that a broken human arm is temporary but still affects the “purpose of its ordinary or intended use.”
Vincent also asked the panel to consider an argument that the District’s booting policy violates the 5th Amendment, but since this defense wasn’t raised at trial, the appeals court declined to address it.
Thomas’ lawyer, Aaron Price, and Vincent’s lawyer, Raymond Rigat, were not immediately reached for comment.
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