Science

Court Denies Physicist’s Infamous Math Problem Is What Got Him Out of Traffic Ticket

Posted on April 20, 2012 at 12:08pm by Liz Klimas
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Court Says Physicists Proof Is Not What Dismissed His Traffic Ticket

Dmitri Krioukov (Photo: Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis)

SAN DIEGO (The Blaze/AP) — The story of a physicist who used a mathematical proof — aptly named the “Proof of Innocence” — to get out of a traffic ticket went viral on the web earlier this week. Now, a San Diego court commissioner is denying that the scientist’s physics paper had anything to do with her dismissing his $200 ticket.

Dmitri Krioukov of the University of California, San Diego, used an equation-filled paper on the physics of a car in motion to successfully appeal a ticket for failure to stop, initial reports claimed.

Superior Court Commissioner Karen Riley says that’s not true. She tells U-T San Diego that she listened to the physics argument but much of it went over her head. U-T San Diego reported several sources where Krioukov had said he felt he got through to his audience with the paper:

PhysicsCentral, a website, quoted Krioukov as saying, “The judge was convinced, and the officer was convinced as well.” The Los Angeles Times quoted him as saying Riley was “very smart” and that “she got my point, I think, very precisely.”

Riley says she found Krioukov not guilty because the officer who cited him wasn’t close enough to the intersection to have a good view. Riley also points out to U-T San Diego that the case was closed in July 2011, but Krioukov waited to post his proof online until April 1 (yes, April Fools Day) of this year.

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Comments (13)

Rumrunner3
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 11:13pm
No the court can have it that they do not know all, they will not admit when they are wrong even when slapped in the face with the truth.
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Mike_31
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 8:06pm
When you factor in the time involved in going to court and in this guy’s case writing this paper, it’s cheaper to get an attorney. My law firm gets my client’s appearance waived so you never go to court. We also give a money back guarantee. Traffic ticket defense is not about being found “not guilty” per se, but about getting a deal that prevents an insurance increase without going to court. Call our office or go to our web site if you get a ticket: http://www.AttackThatTicket.com 1-877-99-NO-TIX (1-877-996-6849)
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Spokane Armory
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 6:06pm
Damn. All those years of school and the ONE class that I didn’t take could have gotten me out of a ticket!
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Melvin Spittle
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 3:11pm
Hyperbole Alert!

The judge’s comments remind me of the courtroom scene in “Idiocracy”,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTfYFF-k2Cs
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Melvin Spittle
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 2:56pm
No wonder his data was not understood: The judge admits that the “scientific proof” flew over her head. If the prosecution did not have a qualified witness to refute his data, then there is no choice but to throw out the charge due to the prosecutor not having adequate knowledge to refute his superior evidence.
The fact that the judge ruled not on the superior evidence, but the inferior secondary argument brings into question her qualifications as a judge.
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biohazard23
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 1:04pm
Bazinga.
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- lukerw
  Posted on April 20, 2012 at 2:58pm
  Facts not Theories win in the Court of Law! Sheldon Cooper… lives!
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FreedomsQB
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 12:51pm
80% of tickets are revenue generators. There are goof balls who we’ve all seen who deserve to be cited, but most of the time the tickets are written to meet quotas.
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- jzs
  Posted on April 20, 2012 at 1:06pm
  Told ya the math angle was a gimmick.
  Report Post »
sawbuck
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 12:37pm
I find this story very troubling in one aspect..

In this country…
Shouldn’t the court’s have the responsibility to show the “proof /science”….
That he was GUILTY. ..? Not the other way around.

I guess the only Proof/ Science that’s necessary anymore ,
is the kind that keeps the revenue flowing in..!
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- Mark0331
  Posted on April 20, 2012 at 12:56pm
  ,,,and keeping the fat public sector unions benefits paid…thats all tickets are used for, I mean our property taxes go to Police, Fire,School and road maintenance…so what is ticket revenue isused for really?..padding and filling the coffers of the public sector unions…I live in NJ…it is an abomination what it costs…its disgraceful and tantamount to extortion.
  Report Post »
- hangthebastids
  Posted on April 20, 2012 at 1:17pm
  guilty until proven innocent.
  Report Post »
Razorhunters
Posted on April 20, 2012 at 12:19pm
traffic ticket…

victimless crime.

theft of funds.
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