The ante has been upped yet again in the battle between photo radar vans and red-light cameras and the people in Sheridan who hate them.
On Friday, attorneys for several Sheridan residents filed a notice of appeal with the Colorado Court of Appeals laying out a plan to challenge an Arapahoe County district judge’s ruling this summer that dismissed an effort by the group to get a measure on the legality of the automated traffic control devices on the November ballot.
Judge Phillip Douglass on Aug. 25 ruled that the plaintiffs hadn’t filed their complaint with the court in a timely fashion after .
The battle over and so far Paul Houston, a Denver resident who has led the fight from just over the city line, has come up short. On Friday, he said Sheridan officials “took advantage of a system rigged in their favor and brazenly rejected valid voter petition signatures.”
“They assumed they would get away with it and never be held accountable,” Houston said. “We look forward to the day when a judge will review the specifics of their bad behavior and give the people back the initiative right that Sheridan officials brazenly stole from them.”
City manager Devin Granbery said the city doesn’t comment on ongoing litigation.
Opponents of photo radar and red-light cameras argue that the devices are simply money makers for the city and that policing should be done in face-to-face encounters between officers and motorists rather than with tickets sent via mail.
The automated traffic control systems have been the subject of contention at the state legislature, where for two sessions running . Recently, the Denver City Council , Xerox State and Local Solutions. The contract is valued at $6.4 million.
