Three Graves County Amish men fined for not displaying a slow-moving vehicle emblem on their horse-drawn buggies have two more months to pay, but say they still do not plan to do so, the Paducah Sun is reporting today.
“I was prepared to go to jail,” Jacob Gingerich told the Sun after court Thursday morning. “I would take jail time before I would pay my fine because I think that would be admitting guilt.”
The men say their Old Order Swartzentruber Amish sect does not believe in the emblems because the fluorescent triangle signs are too worldly. Instead they use lanterns and reflective tape.
Gingerich, Emanuel Yoder and Levi Zook each owe $20 fines and $128.50 in court costs from their February convictions. The fines were due Thursday, but Graves District Judge Deborah Crooks said the Kentucky Court of Appeals has not ruled on the men’s appeal.
“Until they do, I’m not going to impose the obligation,” she said.
She set a new deadline of 10 a.m. Nov. 14 for the men to pay. That is the same day nine Amish men, including Yoder, are set to go on trial for subsequent counts of the same charge. William Sharp, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Louisville, is defending the nine. Public defender Robin Irwin continues to appeal the February convictions.
