Victory for Red Light Robin Hood

He took note of the flowers and crosses going up at intersections. People were dying. He talked about it with his priest and started to research the matter. He discovered that the red light cameras put up by the county were deadly and merely a scam designed to extract money from Suffolk motorists. Stephen Ruth, the Red Light Robin Hood as he would come to be known, was prepared to sacrifice his freedom and set about on a decades-long mission to get rid of the cameras. His quest was finally rewarded: the state legislation permitting the dreaded cameras expires at the end of the year, and no state senator had the will to back its renewal. The red light hero was feted Saturday night at Popei's Clam Bar in Coram. He told of his outrage over the county cash grab and what he did to bring about the program's demise. The Port Jefferson resident started knocking the cameras down. "They were illegal and unconstitutional; they had to go," he explained. He videotaped his efforts, and within a week, he had a million-plus views on YouTube. The Red Light Robin Hood was born. What he found out troubled him deeply. Yellow light warning times were cut to mere seconds to catch more drivers. The engineers who designed the system never signed off on the plans. Instead of the cameras making Suffolk's roads safer like the politicians claimed, they were making them more deadly. When he asked for the camera video of a young boy who was killed at a red light intersection in Miller Place, he was denied. Ruth appealed to the Suffolk Legislature to dismantle the program, going as far as attempting a citizen's arrest of the lawmakers for crimes against humanity. He ran for the legislature himself, even the state senate, to keep the issue at the forefront. He joined forces with the attorney of the boy who was killed. They realized the cameras were the cause of death; it was blood money. They weren't going to let the matter rest. With pressure building, spurred by the discovery of an email directing county employees to shorten the length of the yellow lights, the legislature commissioned a $300,000 study of the program's safety. "They hired the same firm that designed the system to begin with," Ruth pointed out. "Of course, it came back that the cameras were safe. And again, no one would put their name to the study." The Red Light Robin Hood expected to be arrested, but the cops didn't come. He became more aggressive, cutting the wires of dozens of cameras, daring them to get him and elevate his celebrity. Finally, the detectives came; they were polite, no handcuffs. Down at the Sixth Precinct, the officers were on his side. "They knew how dangerous these things were," Ruth said. "I was lying in my cell and l had a conversation with God. Was l doing the right thing? When the lieutenant came in and thanked me for what l was doing, this was my sign from God. At that moment, l knew l was in the right." District Attorney Tim Sini threatened him with hard time upstate if he didn't keep his mouth shut. The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo even revoked his real estate license for a couple of weeks before then-Congressman Lee Zeldin intervened. That only motivated the vigilante to speak out even more, a voice that laughed with derision when it was revealed that after he failed in his reelection, Sini went to work for the company that manages the camera program. Their deal was a swindle as well, with the county getting only half of the proceeds and the vendor getting the rest. The scheme was a taxpayer rip-off from word one, put in place by County Executive Steve Levy in 2010 when Suffolk's finances were bleak. The politicians even tacked on a $30 service charge to milk even more cash from the electorate; a fee struck down in court because it was outside of the authorizing legislation. The despised program was kept by Levy's successor, Steve Bellone, but then stood on shaky ground when Ed Romaine took the county reins on January 1. Fred Thiele, who's retiring at the end of the month, sponsored the bill in the state assembly to re-up the program for another five years. But there were no takers on the senate side, and the Romaine administration didn't push it. "We made it clear to the senators that whoever sponsored the bill to renew would be exposed to a lot of annoyed voters," Ruth pointed out. He had petitions with thousands of aggrieved signatories to back him up. The lawyer for the little boy killed, David Raimondo, called into the Robin Hood's victory celebration. He was the lawyer who successfully sued both Nassau and Suffolk counties to eliminate the additional ticket fees. Nassau had helped itself to $100 on top of the $50 ticket, while Suffolk wasn't as greedy with its surcharge. Still, the two counties snatched up millions from residents of the "Vampire State," who already pay the highest taxes and fees in the nation. It was Raimondo who represented Ruth, no charge, along with attorney Billy Keahon, and eventually won his acquittal from a raft of felony charges. The Avenger went through five different judges during his case, all recusing themselves because they had also fallen prey to the cameras. Next on Ruth's agenda: getting rid of Suffolk's speeding and school bus cameras. "In this country, you have the right to face your accuser," Ruth exclaimed. "It's unconstitutional when your accuser is a camera." County Legislator Rob Trotta agrees. He stopped by Ruth's victory party all the way from Huntington. While he said legislation to forever ban red light cameras isn't practical, he does support ending the school bus tickets, at least for double-lane highways where motorists in the far lane were getting summonses. That program is currently in limbo due to legal challenges.

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Victory for Red Light Robin Hood