Lake Forest Park judge reduces penalties, offers payment plans in infraction calendar

Lake Forest Park, Wash. — Judge Jennifer Grant presided over the city’s Feb. 17 infraction calendar remotely, reducing penalties for multiple drivers cited in the city’s photo-enforcement program and setting payment deadlines and installment options.

At the start of the hearing, Grant explained the calendar was a mitigation calendar — defendants acknowledge the violation but may present circumstances for a lower penalty. For a first-time speeding-in-a-school-walk-zone violation, the judge frequently reduced penalties to $50–$75 and offered time-payment arrangements when defendants said they could not pay in full.

Among the rulings, the court reduced Dale Bronger’s penalty for a 31-mph-in-a-25-mph school-walk-zone citation to $50 and ordered the clerk to mail an invoice due March 20. The court dismissed two of four photo-enforcement matters involving Robert Way, and imposed penalties totaling $290 on two others with a payment plan set at $100 per month by agreement.

The court offered a deferred finding in a moving-violation matter for Malik Johnson. Grant described the deferred option as a six‑month continuance that requires no traffic violations during the period and an administrative fee; Johnson chose the deferred finding and the court allowed installment payments on the $175 administrative fee.

In a contested hearing, the judge reviewed sworn officer statements, photos and video and found the electronic-device citation against Andrew Alifarakis committed under RCW 46.61.672, imposing the $150 statutory penalty. Grant explained that under the statute holding a personal electronic device in hand while driving qualifies as a violation even if the driver said they were plugging the phone into a USB port.

The court also handled a string of first-offense school-walk-zone matters, reducing fines to $50–$75 for drivers who said they were unfamiliar with the roadway or had mitigating circumstances such as low income or recent moves. Where defendants requested time payments, the clerk and judge approved staggered monthly plans.

The judge found multiple defendants failed to appear and entered default findings for those FTAs, imposing the statutory penalties for those matters as permitted by court rules. In several contested cases involving photo evidence, the court viewed the video in the record and either imposed the reduced penalty or, after contested testimony, imposed a modified amount (for example, David Ellingson’s contested matter was reduced to $200).

"We will mail you an updated invoice that shows the amount due with instructions on how you can remit payment," Grant told one defendant she mitigated. She repeatedly noted that photo-enforced infractions are treated like parking tickets and do not go on the driver’s state record.

Next steps: invoices and payment instructions will be mailed; defendants who disagree with outcomes retain the statutory right to appeal.