Motorist Wins Case Against Officer, but Religious Issue Remains

A motorist has won her case in traffic court against a Manhattan Beach police officer whose signature on a ticket included what appeared to be a fish symbol common among Christians.

But the motorist, Kathleen Parsons, won on a technicality unrelated to the dispute about the symbol. Dismissing the ticket on technical grounds made the legal and religious questions posed by the signature moot, a judge ruled.

Parsons, though pleased by the outcome, maintained Thursday that the signature of Officer Steve Fletcher on the citation is improper because it indicates his religious preference.

“As far as I’m concerned, the case is not closed until the officer stops doing this,” Parsons said.

Attempts to reach Fletcher for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. However, during Parsons’ Jan. 20 trial, Fletcher said he did not mean to make a religious statement and that the outline was merely part of his signature. In fact, he insisted the symbol was meant to be the letter “F.”

“I’ve been signing my name like that for years,” Fletcher told South Bay Municipal Judge William G. Willett.

Ultimately, it was not Fletcher’s signature that invalidated the ticket. Instead, Willett dismissed the ticket because Fletcher failed to identify Parsons during the prosecution phase of the trial. Consequently, there was not sufficient evidence to prove Parsons’ guilt, Willett concluded.

Police officials have stood behind Fletcher’s explanation of his signature and have not ordered him to stop using the fish figure.

City Manager Bill Smith said such a directive would be difficult to enforce and that the city cannot legally tell the officer how to sign his name.

“I’d love to be able to say ‘Fletcher, take that thing off of there,’ but I can’t,” Smith said.

Santa Ana attorney John R. Farris Jr., who represented Parsons, said the state Evidence Code prohibits attaching religious symbols to official documents, including traffic tickets.

Fletcher’s signature, Farris said, could improperly enhance the credibility of the officer as a witness in traffic court proceedings. He accused the officer of not telling the truth about the nature of his signature during the trial.

“What bothered me about his testimony is that he insisted that the fish (symbol) was an ‘F,’ ” Farris said. “To me, that was not being terribly straightforward about it. It was not the truth.”

Parsons, a Manhattan Beach real estate agent who lives in Redondo Beach, said she plans to take the matter up with the Manhattan Beach City Council.

“If it comes to it, I will file a suit against the officer, the Police Department and the city” to get the officer to stop, Parsons said.