Tickets for excessive honking at ‘Hands Off’ rally stand, drivers fined 50 cents

... plus court costs. Deputy says drivers were laying on their horns, causing distractions. Pair of drivers say tickets were meant to silence protest. The scene inside the courtroom Tuesday.

(Photo: Dave Bangert)

A pair of drivers ticketed for honking their horns as they showed support for demonstrators gathered this spring outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse will pay 50-cent fines – along with standard court fees tied to traffic citations – a judge ruled after bench trials Tuesday morning.

More than 20 people filled the Tippecanoe Superior Court 6 gallery, as Jim Mattern, of Battle Ground, and Anne Koloc-Buja, of Lafayette, contested tickets the afternoon of April 19, issued as they were leaving a two-hour protest in downtown Lafayette.

They argued that honking their horns – something they’d encouraged other drivers to do that day as thy protested the policies of President Donald Trump and Congress – was equivalent to an expression of free speech and that a Tippecanoe County sheriff’s deputy’s tickets were a form of selective enforcement meant to stifle their opinions.

In both cases, heard back-to-back Tuesday, Judge Michael Morrissey told Mattern and Koloc-Buja that the officer had the discretion to give them warnings instead of tickets and that the prosecutor had discretion to not pursue the cases. But Morrissey said that once it landed with him, he was bound by Indiana statute about what constituted excessive honking.

“You were honking in support of the protest,” Morrissey said. “I believe that. But that’s not speech. … I’ve got a statute to deal with.”

The total costs for both will be $140, including $139.50 in court costs and the 50-cent fines.

Neither Mattern and Koloc-Buja – who met and bonded at the courthouse in June when they told prosecutors they wanted a day in court to address the deputy who issued the tickets – indicated that they planned to appeal.

“I’m going to let that simmer a bit,” Mattern said, as he arranged with his wife, Sue, and friends to get a post-trial lunch.