Atwater v. City of Lago Vista ( Blog 3)

 In March of 1997, Gail Atwater was stopped by Lago Vista police for not wearing a seatbelt. Neither her or her two children were wearing a seatbelt. Seatbelts are required by the Texas Law. According to reports from eyewitnesses, the officer verbally berated Atwater in a raised voice. Atwater requested that the officer lower his voice in a polite manner. The police officer yelled back "You're going to jail." According to records, Atwater remained calm, did not act in a suspicious manner, did not pose a threat to the officer, and was not engaged in any illegal conduct other than failing to wear a seatbelt. She was arrested and was held in jail for one hour and was released on $310.00 bond and later paid a $50.00 fine for failing to wear a seatbelt. Atwater and her husband filed a report saying this was a violation of the 4th amendment. She said that it was unfair to put someone in jail for knowing that not wearing a seatbelt was only a fine punishment. I believe that this was not a violation of the 4th amendment because Atwater talked back to the police officer and even if he was yelling at her she probably would just only have to pay a fine. The police officer is just following the laws and saying it is illegal to not wear a seatbelt in a car in the state of Texas. But if i was a defense attoney for Atwater I would fight for the fact that she was put in jail and that she shouldn't have been. Also that the police officer was using his authority to highly and didn;t need to scream at Mrs Atwater. Also the fact that he didn't even have probable cause for getting so angry is another reason to argue in court.  I believe in this case was not a violation to the 4th Amendment.