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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Squawking and honking 11/11/09   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 Monroe honking case makes it to state Supreme Court The argument over a woman’s use of her horn in Monroe goes to the state Supreme Court. By Diana Hefley, Herald Writer MONROE — A former Monroe woman once jailed over honking her horn during a neighborhood squabble over chickens is taking her fight against Snohomish County’s noise rules to the state Supreme Court. Helen Immelt contends that the county trampled on her First Amendment rights when she was arrested in 2006 for honking her horn at her Monroe-area neighbors. Immelt was sentenced to 10 days in jail for violating the county’s noise ordinance after a three-day trial in Evergreen District Court. She fought the conviction but the state Court of Appeals in June upheld the decision. The court ruled that the First Amendment didn’t given Immelt the right to lay on her car horn for 10 minutes on a Saturday morning in front of a neighbor’s house or honk at another neighbor after she was warned by police she was out of line. Immelt was accused of honking at neighbors because she was ticked off that they complained to the homeowner’s association about the chickens she had roosting in her back yard. “Horn honking per se is not free speech,” Justice C. Kenneth Grosse wrote in the June opinion. “Horn honking which is done to annoy or harass others is not speech.” Immelt was unhappy with the court’s decision. She asked the state Supreme Court to review the case. Late last week, the state’s highest court agreed to examine the arguments. “I felt that in their haste to fashion a witty opinion, the Court of Appeals failed to even address serious arguments that I had made regarding the Constitutional issues,” Immelt said. “I do feel that the Snohomish County ordinance criminalizes protected speech activities regardless of how people view what happened to me, and that is why I continue to fight on. The fact that the Supreme Court granted review recognizes that the issues I presented are both real and substantial but is no predictor of the final outcome.” Immelt has argued that the county’s noise ordinance is too broad and vague. She contended she was honking her horn to express herself, similar to someone honking in support of U.S. troops or a sports team. According to county rules horn honking is a public disturbance unless the horn is used for public safety purposes. Two violations within 24 hours can lead to a criminal citation. A Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy warned Immelt not to honk at her neighbors after they reported that she laid on her horn outside the house of a man who complained about the chickens in her back yard. The homeowner’s association had sent Immelt a letter advising her to get rid of the birds. The sergeant warned Immelt if she continued to blow her horn, he’d arrest her. Later he saw Immelt pull out of her driveway and heard three long blasts. He stopped her car. Immelt told the officer she was responding to a neighbor giving her a vulgar gesture. She was arrested. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Charles Blackman argued that Immelt’s horn honking wasn’t speech. She was using her horn to harm and retaliate against neighbors. The county ordinance doesn’t ban all horn honking, he said. The state Court of Appeals agreed and found that under the circumstances Immelt’s horn honking wasn’t conveying a readily understandable message. Blackman wasn’t surprised the higher court agreed to hear the case. “As a society we are concerned about the First Amendment rights and not chilling them. Courts will consider First Amendment issues in the abstract even when the facts of the particular case don’t seem to warrant it,” Blackman said. “There’s nothing wrong with a society paying special attention to the First Amendment because we value open and free speech so much.” Blackman is expected to face off against Immelt for a third time. She plans to represent herself again. “Needless to say as a non-lawyer, I am both excited and scared to death by the prospect of arguing this case before the Justices of our Supreme Court,” Immelt wrote. Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Log in or register to post new comment | Log out Arrested for honking? Why didn't the officer just issue her a citation? What does it cost in tax dollars to arrest, try and jail someone for 10 days? Especially in these current difficult economic times, aren't there better ways to spend tax dollars? It seems like there are crimes more serious than horn honking which could be focused on. Wouldn't a citation have been sufficient for honking a horn? steve murray | Nov 11, 2009 7:40 am | 2 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Unhonkable They should bring her car horn into the court room and start it honking, then see how long it takes for them to make a ruling. If she did that in our neighborhood someone here would have made her horn unhonkable. We don't have a Supreme court here, or a court of appeals. ed209 | Nov 12, 2009 5:21 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Criminal Honking? So "the sounding of vehicle horns for purposes other than public safety" is a crime in Snohomish County. SCC 10.01.040(1)(d). Remember that the next time you drive by a sign reading "Honk if you ..." or if you tap your horn to summon a carpool rider or to signal your arrival somewhere or to express your disgust at another driver or pedestrian. It seems obvious that honking a car horn for purposes other than public safety sometimes conveys a message, and the right to convey a message is protected by the First Amendment. So a law that criminalizes all such honking is facially unconstitutional. It should not be difficult for county lawyers to re-write the ordinance to address only honking that is for the purpose of harassing or annoying others. Doug Schafer | Nov 12, 2009 3:14 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Possible good reason Bear in mind that high courts often accept for review cases that seem obvious or trivial to the uninitiated becausethey seem obvious or trivial. People have a tendency to push the limits of the law when they get upset---a failing pretty much everyone experiences from time to time. Such pressure generally requires somebody to draw a line between, in this case, "free speech" and unprotected (and annoying) noise. As human beings possess no earlids, we can have no if-you-don't-like-it-don't-listen rule. Neither the Federal nor the Washington State Constitutions provide protection for REVENGE-BY-RUIDO, nor does either require state protection of artificially enhanced, meaningless noise (such as the potentially endless drone of a car horn, the meaning of which is purely deictic: "Look here! There's a traffic emergency!") as free speech. I believe the Washington Supreme Court has accepted this case to draw the line between protected speech and unprotected din. Scott M Ellsworth | Nov 12, 2009 1:19 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Appropriation ...I wonder how many meals and/or services for the truly needy could have been provided with all of the money this has cost the county/state? How embarrassing. Seri Ously | Nov 11, 2009 4:18 pm | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Noise Wow, Snohomish County has a noise ordinance they actually enforce? Kudos! Too bad Everett police don't feel obligated to enforce our city's noise ordinance which is why our downtown and neighborhoods are noise-polluted with the skanky, ghetto sounds of unmuffled cars, motorcycles and car stereos. I'll take the clucking of happy hens over unnecessary human noise any day! Christina Robertson | Nov 11, 2009 11:09 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Another whack job on a mission Now we must waste thousands of dollars debating something as stupid as claiming that laying on your horn is free speech? I can't believe they are taking the case. That's pathetic. This person is clearly a sad, self centered, self important, miserable person. If you want chickens in your yard, then don't move into a neighborhood that prohibits them. You are in the wrong, get over yourself and move on. H White | Nov 11, 2009 9:44 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Crazy If this crazy broad honked her horn like that in front of my home, we would have bigger issues than a free speech case. I'd be the one in jail. L R | Nov 11, 2009 9:04 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal Crazy! This Immelt sure sounds like a loon to me. Does she have nothing else important to do in her life than lay on the horn to harass her neighbors, even after being kindly warned by the Deputy to stop it??? Get a clue and act like an adult why don't ya! Daniel Eakin | Nov 11, 2009 7:35 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal (No heading) she sounds like a real winner to have for a neighbor. john smith | Nov 11, 2009 7:31 am | 0 replies | View all | Post reply | Request removal

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