As the old adage goes, the wheels of justice turn slowly, and nobody knows that better than Neville Greene of Toronto. Nearly 19 years after getting slapped with a traffic ticket for allegedly failing to stop at a red light, Greene finally convinced a court to throw out his longstanding conviction. However, he didn’t just win the appeal; he also secured some long-overdue vindication, as the judge had some harsh words for the judge who oversaw the original trial. Ontario Court Justice Brock Jones described the trial judge as “sarcastic” and said the written reasons for conviction “fell woefully short” of the expected standard. The legal odyssey began on June 4, 2007 when Greene approached an intersection and turned left. A Toronto police officer promptly pulled him over and issued a ticket for failure to stop at a red light. Greene contested the charge, pleading not guilty and representing himself at a trial that took place on July 10, 2008. At one point during the proceedings, while the officer who issued the ticket was testifying, Greene tried to show a photograph of the intersection that appeared to depict construction work. When Greene asked the judge how to present the photo evidence properly, he sarcastically quipped "this isn’t Law and Order.” The judge continued to rule evidence in the form of photographs as inadmissible because they were taken the day after the alleged offense. After Justice Brock Jones vacated Green’s conviction, he issued an acquittal, stating that it wouldn’t be in the public interest to order a new trial. Better late than never.
