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G
ENESIS
-VP™: User’s Manual
Appendix 4, Case Law
Judicial notice is an elementary principal of law. The principal applies to
facts that are common knowledge and states that it is necessary to introduce
evidence to prove what is common knowledge.
The following landmark rulings have made it simpler to introduce RADAR
SPEED MEASUREMENTS as evidence.
1. State v. Dantonio in June 1995, State of New Jersey.
The New Jersey Supreme Court took judicial notice of the Doppler Principle.
Other States quickly followed.
2. State v. Tomanelli in 1966.
The court pointed out that while the tuning fork method is acceptable, the
result of the test is only as good as the tuning fork used.
3. Honeycutt v. Commonwealth in 1966.
The court ruled that it is sufficient for an officer to have enough knowledge
and training to properly:
• Setup RADAR.
• Test its accuracy.
• Read the instrument to obtain the speed measurement.
4. State v. Hanson in 1978.
The court decreed that the officer must be able to testify:
• To having had adequate training and experience in the operation of
the moving RADAR.
• That the moving RADAR instrument was in proper working order
and that its testing had followed suggested methods.
• That the instrument was used in an area where road conditions
presented only the minimum possibility of distortion.
• That the patrol car’s speed was verified.
• That the instrument was expertly tested soon after the arrest and that
the testing did not rely on the instruments own internal circuit testing.
