- Police pulled over Justine Wadsack for allegedly going 71 mph in a 35 mph zone.
- It turns out that legislators in Arizona might have “immunity” in cases like this one.
- Wadsack left the scene without any charges but will likely face some in the future.
Driving at over twice the legal speed limit would hit most folks hard in the wallet, at the very least. For Justine Wadsack, it turned out to be no big deal since she’s an Arizona Senator. What’s wilder is that the officer who pulled her over didn’t give her special treatment, the law did. On top of that, Wadsack reportedly still believes that she’s suffering political persecution.
Wadsack pulled over for a traffic stop after an officer allegedly clocked her at 71 mph in a 35 mph zone on March 15. In bodycam footage from the incident, Wadsack immediately identifies herself as a senator and claims that she was speeding because “I’m racing to get home because I have four miles left on my charger before I’m about to go down,” she said. Logic indicates that she likely meant “of range left in my battery” but maybe she meant something else. Regardless, it seems that she doesn’t understand the relationship between speed and efficiency.
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Either way, the officer collected her information and returned to his car where he stayed for over 15 minutes. At that time he allegedly received word that she had “legislative immunity”. “After contacting our legal advisor it was decided that Sen. Wadsack was possibly under diplomatic immunity (sic),” the officer wrote in his report. “The traffic charges were long formed until this could be confirmed. They may possibly be issued at a later date.”
The law in Arizona is meant to keep authorities from arresting legislators while they’re in session and actively voting on other laws according to The Tucson Sentinel. Notably, that doesn’t stop authorities from charging the subject once they’re out of session which appears to be what’s happening here.
On June 27, Tucson police attempted to convince Wadsack to come in to sign a criminal speeding ticket. She protested and said this was all part of some political persecution.
Wadsack “immediately became defensive and argued that she was in fact not speeding. I explained that there was probable cause to issue her a citation for criminal speeding and that she could present her arguments to the judge; however, she refused to meet to sign the citation and said she would not accept it,” the TPD officer reported.
In case that doesn’t sound entitled or above the law enough, listen to this excerpt from the report… “She also said that I was being aggressive and got upset when I called her Mrs. Wadsack and not Senator Wadsack. She then abruptly ended the conversation and hung up the phone.” What a gem. The law in Arizona I mean. Now we all just need to find a way to be legislators in Arizona so that speeding doesn’t matter for us either. Strangely enough, she’s now lost the support of the Fraternal Order of the Police. Odd.