Motorcyclist too fast for own good in court

Friday, December 19, 2014

A motorcyclist with a Florida driver's license and a Parke County address reportedly played fast and loose with the speed limit this fall but in court earlier this week, he wasn't as quick as the judge.

Making an initial appearance in Putnam Superior Court on a reckless driving charge after being clocked at twice the legal speed limit in September, Theodore J. Bubb, 26, Rosedale, had a not-guilty plea entered for him in court Wednesday.

Reckless driving is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

"Allegedly he was doing 110 miles an hour in a 55-mph zone," Deputy Prosecutor Jim Ensley told the court as Bubb sat alone in dress clothes at the defense table.

Bubb was reportedly clocked at 110 mph on a westbound 2013 Yamaha motorcycle on U.S. 40, near County Road 800 West, just east of the Putnam-Clay county line. The violation allegedly occurred at 3:58 p.m. Sept. 9.

In the probable causae affidavit filed in the case, Master Trooper Donald J. Farris of the Indiana State Police Post at Putnamville reported that "Bubb did recklessly operate a vehicle at such an unreasonable rate of speed as to endanger the safety and property of others."

The trooper also noted that Bubb produced a Florida driver's license and told him he had no insurance because it was not required in Florida.

Judge Denny Bridges asked the defendant how long he's been back living in Indiana, and Bubb said since October.

That means he should have obtained an Indiana driver's license by now but has not, the judge pointed out.

Explaining that he's just here going to school, Bubb lists his residence information as in Rosedale.

"Remind me again," Judge Bridges asked incredulously, "what institution of higher learning is located at Rosedale?"

Bubb explained that he lives there with a friend but attends trade school at Lincoln Tech on the northwest side of Indianapolis.

A rather lengthy commute, the judge acknowledged.

The defendant asked about getting a court-appointed attorney.

Judge Bridges questioned the possibility.

"If you feel like the trooper made a mistake with (clocking) you running twice the speed limit," Bridges prefaced, then perhaps Bubb could request counsel at a later proceeding.

Bubb is next scheduled to appear in court on the Class B misdemeanor charge at 8:30 a.m. March 11.

Until then, Deputy Prosecutor Jim Hanner, a fellow resident of Bubb's Parke County neck of the woods, had the final word for the motorcyclist.

"Slow down," he urged as the defendant left the courtroom.

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