Dozens of Colorado drivers take concerns for express lane citations to court

It's dangerous when drivers change in and out of express lanes where they're not supposed to. Cameras used by the Colorado Transportation Investment Office catch it all the time. So a number of drivers in the state are now raising concerns over these citations. 

John Bowlin was heading to a birthday celebration for his wife last May when he incorrectly merged into an express lane. 

"I knew that entrance, but I got distracted by my kids enough not to follow the GPS instructions, and I missed the entrance," Bowlin said

Bowlin doesn't deny crossing the solid white line to enter the express lane, but receipts show he never missed paying a toll. He received a $75 ticket for a safety violation.

"I looked at it, and I looked at the statute and the regulation that they were citing in this notice of civil penalty," Bowlin explained. "And when I looked those up, it said that the CTIO could impose a civil penalty for toll evasions, and then it had a whole definition of toll evasions. It talked all about toll evasions, but it didn't say anything about safety violations."

Bowlin is also an attorney.

"Look, I may have actually broken another law, and if there was a sheriff's deputy there, he may have been able to pull me over and give me a ticket," Bowlin admitted. "But that's a whole different question. Then, can you send me something in the mail?"

Bowlin argues the statute doesn't give CTIO the authority to issue safety violations, and he is challenging the ticket in court for himself and thousands of others likely in the same position.

"Very, very few people are going to do that, and even fewer will do that successfully," Bowlin said

In March in Douglas County, a county court judge agreed with Bowlin and tossed out the ticket, and, before that, another driver, also an attorney, won his case in Jefferson County using the same argument.

We know in the first year of the new camera system CTIO issued roughly $45 million in civil penalties.

Losing in court would put all that revenue at risk, and the Colorado Attorney General is appealing both cases.

"They have taken the opposite approach at every step of the way, at least in my case," Bowlin said. "They have litigated hard every issue. They have made things difficult at every turn, and so this appears to be their strategy, which tells me that they are mostly after the money."

CBS Colorado found CTIO spent nearly $1 million on its internal administrative dispute hearings, and a public records request shows the Colorado Attorney General's office has taken on more than 70 cases and spent roughly 2,300 hours litigating those cases at a rate of no more than $145 dollars an hour, costing taxpayer's approximately $300 so far.

With so much at stake, Bowlin says he is willing to take the case to the Colorado Supreme Court.

"I think I am right on the law, and I think that it is important for a whole lot of Colorado consumers that the decision be decided at the highest level." Bowlin said.

Another step being considered is filing a class action lawsuit. 

CBS Colorado asked Colorado Department of Transportation for a comment on the different outcomes in these court cases and if there are concerns that this could go to the Colorado Supreme Court. In a statement CDOT said, "For matters such as this where there is pending litigation, our comments are made through formal filings as part of the legal process."

The Attorney General's office declined to comment.