Roseville Driveway Car-Warming Defendant Gets Cold Reception in Court

You may recall hearing about a Roseville man who left his car running in his driveway this January and received a $128 ticket from the local police for doing so (see this article if you haven't).  We also discussed it right here on the Ludington Torch in January.

Taylor Trupiano (aka Nick Taylor) went to his girlfriend's house and parked in her driveway within 5-7 ft. from her house to pick her and her two year old son up.  He left his car running to keep it warm in the 8 degree weather while he went inside to get them ready, he came out shortly thereafter to find a ticket citing a local ordinance that fined him for leaving his car running while unattended.

That story is odd enough, but it quickly got better when Trupiano took to social media to thank the officer who gave him the late Christmas present and what he thought was a ridiculous ticket.  He gave the officer an affectionate pet name, and the post quickly took off in viral fashion due to the oddity of the charge, and the disbelief that a person could actually get charged for leaving a car running on a private driveway. 

But the weirdness was still not over; Roseville Police Chief James Berlin was so offended by the negative comments about his department that he told Truliano to “drop dead” in a media interview.  But, for a while, the madness deadened, until it started anew at the trial in Macomb County District Court this last week. 

A local and relatively inexperienced young attorney named Nicholas Somberg took Trupiano's case pro bono, without pay, because he believed the poor man needed better representation than a court-appointed hack.  Due to the publicity the case received, there were plenty of media at the court hearing, some live-streaming the event to their audiences.  WXYZ was one of those, as seen below:

But as MCDC Judge Marco Santia trudged out to his bench with a scowl on his face, he was apparently alerted to Somberg live streaming the event himself, without court permission, take a listen to the first minute plus of the trial:

Attorney Somberg acknowledged that his associate sitting behind him was live streaming, but had only done so after asking the local media if it was permissible.  Judge Santia was infuriated, however, that Somberg did not fill out a permission slip approved by him and ruled him in contempt of court.  As he was doing this, the judge also looked directly into the two local media cameras that were live streaming and insisted they were not live streaming to Facebook, undoubtedly amusing the thousands viewing the proceedings in real time.

For the contempt, Attorney Somberg faces up to a 93 day sentence and possible disbarment.  He plans on representing himself at the May 25th hearing on that charge, even with all of his apologies for the offense to the court.  For the rest of the hearing, the judge seems rather reluctant to consider the defense's position, after listening to the prosecuting attorney, Officer Dipshit K. Keary, and Somberg's use of a precedent to argue that the part of the driveway the car was on was not generally accessible. 

Judge Santia stated that it was “reasonable” for a cop to cite a person for leaving their car running in the name of safety to keep thieves from stealing running cars.  Officer Keary, however, could give no reason why he didn't go to the house just a few feet from the car to alert the occupants that a car in their driveway was running, never checked the car doors to see if it was locked, but he did have the initiative to take a few minutes to write up a ticket.  Then left with the safety issue still ongoing. 

Here is the full court hearing, it's quite interesting with the cast of characters involved.  A brief review of the defense's use of State of Michigan v. Rea COA follows, which ironically was being argued in front of the state's Supreme Court this week after prosecutor's appealed it.  May I add, like this, it's a tremendous waste of taxpayer's money.

The facts in Rea was that Mr. Rea had been playing his music loud, on the third complaint received, the police came and observed Rea back his car out of his garage and stop, he then drove back to the garage.  The police arrested Rea for OWI after determining he was above the limit.

The circuit court found “the upper portion of Defendant’s private residential driveway” does not constitute an area “generally accessible to motor vehicles.”, the OWI statute required driving to be in such areas.  The appeals court affirmed and concluded that no one could reasonably conclude that defendant drove in an area open to the public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, other than to defendant and the members of his household.

The driveway is private property.  State law (MCL 257.44) defines a "private driveway as any piece of privately owned and maintained property which is used for vehicular traffic, but is not open or normally used by the public."   Hopefully, Macomb's circuit court will have a fair review of the facts behind this case and utilize laws and precedents better than the Honorable Mario Santia. 

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I think the citizens of that town should go to the judges driveway and walk up and down it. When he comes out to see why they are trespassing  on his property , they should tell him that by his own words : IT"S " GENERALLY" OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. The car was on private property, if the cop was so concerned he should have knocked on the door of the residence and made it known about the ordinance, that would have been the right thing to do. But no, big man had to write a ticket . Video shows what a twerp he is.

The Judge is supposed to be impartial, objective, and fair. He isn't anything near that in this case, he's a prick! Went right after the defense attorney for contempt, and he decided all this in advance before court started, another fixed agenda on his part, NOT open, balanced, and fair at all. Just watched beginning of video, will catch up later.

I wonder if lawyer Nicholas Somberg will seek legal council from an attorney with training wheels even if it is pro bono or will he embarrass himself further and use a court appointed hack or worse, represent himself at his May25 hearing?

Any side bets whether or not  Somberg  live stream's his case?

Watched entire video now and see a lot of problems here. First of all: the officer Keary, wth is wrong with this guy? Nervous disorder, shell-shock, twitching and seizure-like behavior? Acted and talked like he's lost his reason. Then, how come he isn't on the witness stand, taking an oath with hand over bible, and being sworn in properly and legally? He just sits in the prosecutor's desk/chair and answers the judge. Why is the judge taking the case on for the prosecutor for so long? He isn't the prosecutor, and violated his duty to remain neutral, again! Obviously, the defense attorney made a good case for dismissal, and it appeared that this judge wanted nothing to do with listening to it, or observing the intent of that traffic law. Very unjust ruling and actions in that court case, should be easy to appeal it to someone with some real brains and integrity imho.

What a monumental waste of the court's time as well as a waste of money paying for all those involved.

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