Manderson, Wyoming Speed Traps

Drove west into town on Wyoming 31. As you approach the town from open country there is no indication that you are about to enter the town. You first are advised to reduce speed from 65mph to 40mph as you approach a left hand curve in the road. You only have about 500 ft to reduce speed. Which I did. Within about another 500 feet as the town become visible you come upon 30mph with no warning. As we entered the tiny 2 block town, there were no vehicles either on the road or parked except a blacked out unmarked Dodge. Since I have 3 members of my family in the California Highway Patrol I am familiar with the appearance of a stealth police cruiser. I was astonished to be pulled over immediately after passing the Dodge cruiser. By this time I was at 20mph. The officer informed me that I was in excess of 40mph at the 40mph sign and at 36 at the 30mph sign. He said that he was going to do me a favor and only cite me for 36 in a 30. Of course he did. He has no line of site to the 40mph sign as it is around the sweeping curve leading into town and obscured by trees and building. He was lying.
I find it incredible that a town of less than 1 square mile and only 3 streets sports a $40,000.00 + state of the art Police cruiser and a police force of 3 officers!!!! What are they patrolling??? NOTHING. This is an illegal SPEED TRAP, administered by the Manderson Municiple Court. What a farce!!! This is a town of 104 with approximately 30 families with an average income of $40,000/year. How does this tiny tax base support this farce of a police department and court. SPEED TRAP.
We drive the back roads for Wyoming happily every year for the past 35 years. We had never driven through Manderson. Won’t ever again.
I am sure that my California plates made us an easy target for this continuing fraud. I intend to approach the Wyoming Highway Patrol and the Wyoming Department of Transportation regarding the obvious blight on the good will of the people of Wyoming. I’ve driven more than 15,000 miles over the years in Wyoming and have never been cited.

I just got a speeding ticket while on my road trip to Yellowstone. Can you help or know someone that can.

This was a trap. I was driving in a 40 mile/hr zone and reducing speed coming around the bend to a rail road stop, through Maderson town, Wyoming. My speed was reduced significantly to around 30 or 35 mile/hr max. The officer pulled me over said he clocked me at 40 but I think it must have been in a 40 mile hour zone as I was reducing speed still. My daughter said I must be doing around 30 mile/hr or less.

The officer asked me where I was heading etc. and wrote me a citation of $140 and said there’s a $40 discount as everyone was wearing a seatbelt. This is very wrong and a trap and Wyoming, Maderson a town population of around 150, is well know for this speed trapping tourists on their way though Yellowstone national park. This is clear after reading many articles and complaints online. I want to fight this ticket. Please advice.

As others have described I was passing through towing a TT on my way to Yellowstone. As the speed went from 70 to 40 to 30 I rolled past a cop sitting in Manderson Main Street waiting. I was busy looking at my GPS to find the next turn which was in a few hundred feet and with a line of RVs behind me all riding my butt because I was going too slowly (for them)

Copy pulls out right behind me and pulls me over. I figure once I explain he’ll understand but nope. It was like speaking to a ticket robot. I have (had) a spotless driving record, I was polite, apologetic, but nothing would get in the way of this Manderason cop and another $167 in ticket revenue for the town (where does all that money go?)

He “clocked” me doing 41 in a 30 despite the 40 zone just ending and me doing my best to slow my rig and prepare for turn. I highly doubtful his report was accurate but clearly they have a system setup to make it almost impossible to stay compliant.

This is a racket, pure and simple.

I actually went to fight the ticket after 3 months. I know very few of you would drive to that ghost town again from out of states for a $150+ bond, so I was the only one actually showed up on the court date.

What’s more disappointing I found was their court system was so corrupted. The judge, the town attorney and the police officers were all colluded. In order to get that pathetic money, the police officer lied and the judge lied too.

Here is my experience:

1. When I drove through this one block town in April, the police officer was standing on the curbside by his car. He actually just walked out the town hall and put a tray to his passenger seat. He was not sitting in his car. He was not using radar to detect my speed. My car camera captured all of it.

2. When driving from east/Hwy 31 to hwy 20 with an out of state license car, you will be their target. This short period of road (Marshall St or Main street) is their money maker, speed limit down from 65 to 40 to 30, but no human being or traffic. My camera record shows the only human/vehicle I encountered passing through that town was the police officer (maybe it was in April and very few traveled to Yellowstone)

3. I was pulled over. the officer said he visually estimated I drove over 40mph. On the citation he wrote 42/30.

4. All the officer’s questions were where I was from/Where I was going/How long would I stay in Yellowstone/When I would go back. After repeatedly confirming I was just a visitor (not living in Wyoming) and wouldn’t stay long, he gave me a citation.

4. I pleaded not guilty on the call-in initial appearance after one month. The judge scheduled my court date 2 months later. This is the trick they play: span this whole process long, so eventually you want to get over this trouble and just pay them. I heard the July one already scheduled to October court date.

5. After 2 months, I went back for the court date. My trial was scheduled after the initial appearance of the moth, so I could sit there and hear all the call-ins. I was surprised they pulled over so many people in recent month (maybe because of the travel season). My trial was actually delayed 20 minutes because of it.

6. Many call-in people said they were out of Wyoming and couldn’t appear in the court. There was one guy bravely said to the judge that the police officers only targeted out of state travelers, but the judge replied she had been working there for more than 3 years and she found no evidence for that (liar. when called in, people didn’t need to indicate their address, but I already heard so many people said they live in Florida, California, etc….. if the judge couldn’t find the evidence, why not look at the list, isn’t 100% out of state?)

7. the people called in were so polite, even some were so humble with “your honor” in every answer to the judge. But do you know when you asked questions, the police officers and judge all made faces?

8. My trial was even funny. The officer said he saw me drove 45 mph. I said this was the first time I heard this number. 45, 42, 40, what was my speed? I defended myself to the judge that the officer’s estimate was inaccurate with different numbers. The judge even defended for the officer saying she thought 5 miles variance was acceptable!

9. The officer insisted he also used radar. But my camera captured he was not in his car when I passed him. I showed the captured image to the town attorney and the judge. I guess both of them was shocked at that moment, because all the attorney defended was how accurate their radar was/how they calibrated the radar every year blah blah blah

10. With such strong evidence, the officer said he went back to his car after seeing me and used the radar to detect my speed again. Now the lie started.

11. I said let’s assume it took you 2 seconds to make a decision I was speeding and needed to pull me over, another 10 seconds to drop the tray in your hand, run back to the other side of the car, open the door, started the car, started the radar and detected my speed. 42 mph*12 seconds = 739.2 feet. I was already 739.2 feet away from you in a winding road with trees , railroad, houses and other obstacles, there was no way to detect my speed.

12. The attorney defended I was not trained to time. But how many seconds the officer needed, he didn’t answer. I said even the officer was well trained and this process only took 6 seconds, I was already more than 350 feet away, and google said the diameter of a speed radar was usually 200 feet. Here comes the judge again to defend, she said she never heard of it.

13. with all these unclear and inaccurate info, the judge still thought I was guilty. The funny part was when the trial was almost over, the town attorney stood up and asked the judge to give him several seconds to talk to me. You know what, his standing up at that moment just gave me a feeling that I was in a play or The Truman Show: it was like everyone else was running a screenplay, at this moment, it was the attorney stood up-> the judge agreed immediately (without even thinking) -> the attorney pretended to think for several seconds-> offered me a deal. This part they probably have acted too many times. They were so proficient but the acting was also so emotionless.

14. Basically the deal was remove the speeding from my record but still pay the bond. The result became so obvious: all these acting was for money. They didn’t care if you have a record or not, they just wanted money.

15. When the trail was over and I asked the judge I didn’t agree with the result, and how to pursue it. She just didn’t give me clear info. She said that would take you too much time and money, you needed to file a report to Manderson court (what? I don’t agree with Manderson court’s decision but I still file a report to them?). Despite I kept asking, she just didn’t say what’s the upper level.

When I left, the police officers, the town attorney, the clerk and judge all chitchat with each other. They were one family.

Btw, the town hall was actually a community library. They just put several tables and chairs as a court. The police officers has a small office in it, so as the judge. They all work in the same roof, they know each other, they are probably all locals. They are colluded and they all know the purpose is to get money from out of state visitors. You will never walk out that Town Hall with paying a penny.

They and their process/records all needed to be investigated!

Black unmarked car sits on Route 31 /Marshall Street (between N. Sherman Ave and E 2nd Street) within 100 feet of transition from 40 mph zone to 30 mph zone.
Officer will radar you while in the 40 mph zone but cite you for speeding in the 30 mph zone to increase the fine. This town of 115 people hires up to three off-duty police officers from neighboring towns to operate speed traps at the same time.