State Police Department

2-27-2020 #2: February the 26th of 2020, appeared in court to contest the ticket I was issued and to share with the judge the misconduct of the traffic stop in general. F. Buksa showed up 10 minutes late as we appeared 15 minutes early. Once sworn in trooper Buksa explained his side of the story having left several parts out only because our presence in the court was to dispute the ticket itself. The fact that he flat out lied to the judges face and under oath was a direct reflection of the type of person Buksa is. He was nervous, he stuttered quite a bit, never made eye contact and fidgeted with his handcuffs. I however was calm, tried to make eye contact, so as to be polite, and explained my side of the story. Although I had a witness, the passenger in the car that day, I was unaware of when they were to share their side of the story. Without that, all evidence as to what happened to have caused me to accelerate and the screen shot of their gps which was taken as we passed the patrol car sitting in a vacant parking lot. The screen shot on the GPS shows 39. Unfortunately I was so concerned with the conduct and demeanor of F. Buska that I never thought to have shown this before the judge. I’m sure the judge would have not taken the gps into consideration any way since its not 100% accurate- but then again either is a radar gun that #1- had not been calibrated since 3-8-2019, and #2- the weather was overcast. He also said that his visual observation was spot on which made him use the improperly maintained radar gun. I would have also brought this to light in front of the judge but the judge was given a copy of the proof of the calibration of the radar gun as well. The officer never mentioned the fact that a radar gun was used to measure the speed of the vehicle. Since the judge ruled in favor of F. Buksa, I was taken aback, as I was telling the truth and Buksa was not. The only reason he would have felt the need to lie was because of the misconduct that ensued after we were stopped. I would have had no problem having had to pay a ticker for having sneezed and accelerated for just seconds rather than having been issued a $290 ticket with 4 points now on my license. The judge said he gave me break and fined me for 50mph opposed to the 53mph. After this, since I wasn’t happy with the ruling, I went directly to the trooper direct supervisor. I can’t remember his name but he and Leon from the jail, were the most understanding, courteous, respectful and professional officers I have ever met (my rating only reflects F. Buksa conduct- especially with being untruthful. They explained the chain of command and how they were appreciative of our visit because they would rather know than not so it can he corrected. (I don’t think Buksa deserved to lose his job but he deserves some sort of corrective action. Leon couldn’t have said it any better “there are both good cops and bad cops out there!” This helped in regards to reassuring me that this type of behavior is unacceptable and even if you’re a cop that that doesn’t give you the right to treat civilians like criminals or make assumptions about someones race that they must be drug dealers etc etc.. Aside from deciding which route to go as far as the ticket and conduct I have no hard feelings for the “good cops” out there. The ones where, if I was to get pulled over for speeding, would be professional, let me explain myself and issue me a warning/ ticket in which I probably wouldn’t contest it if I had no reason to. Thanks for reading this. Just wanted to make those aware of what I had to endure only at what was supposed to be a traffic stop

2-27- 2020 #1: Trooper F. Buksa, on September the 7th 2018 at approximately 4:15 PM, pulled me over for having sped driving east bound, headed home to Vermont. I was aware that the speed limit had changed from 55-30 rather quickly and I had decreased my speed accordingly. However, I did accelerate for a brief instance, only because I had sneezed twice, simultaneously. I take 100% accountability for having done so and was prepared to be issued a warning. Mind you, I sneezed and was unable to pull over at that time- in which I have never had to pull over to do so. At any rate, officer F. Buksa pulled me over, got out of the patrol car and admitted to me that I was going approximately 9 over the 30 mile speed limit. I told him why I had done so, in good faith of course, and was hoping he understood the circumstances. He then proceeded to interrogate myself and the passenger, naturally, having asked questions such as: “Why were we in NY,” “what did we buy while shopping,” etc. etc.. We answered him politely. All of a sudden he asked the passenger to get out of the car and had them get into the patrol car, with himself as well, only to question them about what he “perceived” actually happened while on our outing to Plattsburgh. I then thought to myself, why isn’t he questioning the driver of the vehicle, ME?!?! Not only that, but why wasn’t I questioned at all? He intimidated the passenger to the point where they felt forced to have to tell the trooper it was ok to search the vehicle although they really didn’t want to. The trooper was trying to get an admittance from the passenger of having marijuana since it was legal in Vermont- a very weak assumption seeming as though there wasn’t anything remotely suspicious that would warrant him to have said anything about that. The passenger respectfully cooperated thinking there would be legal consequences if they didn’t. After about 5-10 min. of having to wait in the car for the trooper to finish up speaking to the passenger, they both got out of the patrol car. The passenger looked as if they had just seen a ghost. The trooped asked me to step out of the car as well and we both stood in front of the car while he tore it apart. He even took pieces of the car apart that we had to put back on ourselves since he felt the need to not be respectful enough to place everything the way he found it. As he was midway of searching the vehicle, back up arrived- lights flashing and all! This was when people in the neighborhood started peeking through curtains and popping their heads outside in curiosity. I was ashamed, felt as if I was a criminal and disrespected in the worst of ways. After having stood outside in the rain trooper Buska had finished the search only to have discovered NOTHING in the vehicle. After we returned to our vehicle, we tried getting information from the trooper only to be give condescending answers which were rude and unprofessional. He wouldn’t even tell us his name as he said it was on the ticket. He then let us leave the scene. We felt violated, like criminals, and extremely disgusted in trooper F. Buskas unprofessionalism. 5 months later, I had received paperwork, from the town of Champlain in regards to pleading guilty or innocent. I obviously pled innocent which gave me the right to challenge the ticket. Of course I contested it because the whole situation was unforgettably unprofessional having left me disgusted in law enforcement in that region especially. I contested the ticket because I was going 7-10 mph over for less than 10 seconds having sneezed, which the officer also agreed to while I was pulled over. The ticket I was physically issued stated I was going 53 in a 30, and that was my biggest concern as well as the troopers conduct. All in all, myself and the passenger at the time, drove back to Champlain to make our scheduled court appearance. To find out the result of this complaint see the second entry.... Did I forget to mention the fact that I’m African American? This should shed some light on the ordeal.