DALLAS — Brandy Bottone, the pregnant Plano mom who attracted international attention when she received a traffic ticket for riding solo in a high-occupancy lane, wanted to prove a point.
She said she believes that under Texas’ new abortion law, her unborn baby counted as a second living person, so she was not in violation of the law that requires two people in a vehicle in an HOV lane.
She is proving her point.
Her traffic citation was dismissed earlier this month without a court hearing.
The Dallas County district attorney’s office moved to dismiss the ticket with the following legal language: “Based on a review of the facts and circumstances of this case, and the applicable law, the state moves to dismiss the case.”
Translation: With the state’s new abortion law declaring a fetus to be a living human being, legal questions are still to be determined. The Texas Legislature is expected to clarify this in next year’s session.
The DA’s office said Monday that will serve as its response for now.
This matter is not over.
Bottone, 32, said in an interview Sunday that earlier this month she received a second ticket for the same offense at the same location.
She said she wasn’t trying to prove a point. She was just trying to get where she needed to go. Because the matter is unsettled she believes she could still drive in an HOV lane.
She said she did not disclose the second ticket until now on the advice of her lawyer. A hearing on her second ticket has not been scheduled.
“Nobody is answering whether it’s right or wrong,” she says. “They dismissed it. Why do I have to change my belief? ... It doesn’t answer the question. Did I get it right or did I get it wrong?”
The way she describes it, her second traffic stop by Dallas County sheriff’s deputies on an exit ramp on U.S. Highway 75 South near Midpark Road had a comical feel.
“‘You again?’” she recalled one deputy saying. He said he didn’t need to explain to her what the ticket was about because she already knew.
“So when are you going to have this baby?” he asked.
“Tomorrow,” she replied.
“Oh, good luck,” he said before she received her ticket.
The sheriff’s deputies are under contract with the Texas Department of Transportation, or TxDOT, to enforce HOV rules.
If the first ticket was dismissed, why is law enforcement still writing $275 tickets?
TxDOT spokesman Tony Hartzel said, “TxDOT has no role in law enforcement or prosecution decisions. The dismissal of one citation has not affected the department’s relationship with law enforcement.”
The Dallas Morning News was unable to reach the sheriff’s deputies office Monday before deadline.
For the first citation, Bottone told how an officer peeked in her stopped vehicle and asked, “Is there anybody else in the car?”
“Well, yes,” she replied.
“Where?” he asked.
She pointed to her bulging stomach and said, “My baby girl is right here. She’s a living person.”
“Oh, no,” the deputy replied. “It’s got to be two persons outside of the body.”
That became the traffic citation heard around the world. It crystallized the ongoing debate about when a fetus is considered a human.
Still to be determined by lawmakers is how this affects not only HOV lane drivers but population numbers? For example, is an unborn baby to be counted as part of the population? What about tax deductions for children?
All the attention wasn’t easy. One woman, claiming to be Bottone’s sister, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money. Bottone doesn’t have a sister. It was shut down after the family complained.
To block others from doing the same, the family then set up its own GoFundMe page with the promise that all money raised will go to the Genesis Women’s Shelter. So far, that page has collected $2,512.
Comments on that page are indicative of support she received:
“Fight on sister!”
“Never been more proud to be a Texan.”
“Let’s make them confront how stupid and contradictory these laws are.”
“Whether we are pro-choice or pro-life, we can all agreed that it can’t go both ways.”
Bottone did have her baby girl, who is now almost 4 weeks old.
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