Judge overturns citation in battle over long, custom truck

Jeffrey Libby

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

Bill and Trisha Stickel can continue parking their 17-foot custom truck in their private driveway at the end of each business day spent hauling mobile homes and offices in the Las Vegas Valley.

That was the ruling Thursday by Municipal Court Judge Victor Miller. His decision overturns a $90 parking ticket that cited the Stickels for parking their commercial custom-trailer truck in a residential neighborhood.

The amount of the ticket was nominal, but Trisha Stickel said the stakes were high. She said she wanted to defend her right and other people's right to do as they please on private property.

"You don't dig up some wacko ordinance because you're sick of a neighbor's complaints. Can you imagine if this ticket had been upheld and they started legislating beyond the sidewalk on other people's driveways, too?" she asked.

Judge Miller also had questions.

During the hearing, he asked what harm the truck could cause on Kendall Lane, a steep street overlooking Lake Mead that on most days is lined with 60-foot mobile homes, speed boats and trailered Skidoos.

City Attorney Dave Olsen said he agreed, there wasn't much difference.

It was a short hearing that provoked little argument.

But even so, Stickel had lingering concerns. For one, she said, not everyone can afford to pay an attorney $1,500 to fight a parking ticket.

She also said the ticket probably had less to do with an attempt to uphold an ordinance governing streets than it did with a "good old boy system," noting that the police officer who issued the ticket attended the hearing with the code enforcement officer and the neighbor who filed the original complaint.

Chief of Police Bill Turk approached Stickel after the hearing, however, and said if complaints persist, he'll be able to reply that the case has been settled.