Driver Loses Fight Over $55 Ticket For Honking At Auburn Police Officer

WORCESTER (CBS) – A driver has lost her fight over a ticket for honking her car horn at a police officer.

Stephanie Kelley of Westboro said an Auburn police officer in an unmarked SUV peeled out in front of her as she swerved to avoid him on Route 20 last November. The officer was pursuing another car but wound up writing Kelley a rare $55 noise ticket for "excessive and unnecessary" use of her horn.

Kelley got even more upset when she learned that the officer told his superiors about something not written in any report – he accused her of giving him the middle finger from behind the wheel.

"I did not flip this guy off," Kelley said.

She paid the $55 fine, but eventually spent another $440 – eight times the amount of the original ticket – to appeal it.

Last week, a district court judge ruled in favor of the Auburn officer.

"I was pretty disgusted with the decision, but expected it to happen that way," she told WBZ-TV Wednesday.  "It would not have set a good precedent for a judge to go against the police officer."