Dirt Biker Pays $75. Will It Work?

As an ATV speedster appeared in the halls of justice, a friend and fellow dirt-bike owner decried what he called an injustice — a crackdown against young people looking for something to do.

“I feel his pain,” Maajid Muhammad said outside the state courthouse on Elm Street, ​“like anybody else that bought a dirt bike and wants to ride.”

Muhammad was feeling the pain of one Terrance Jones. Muhammad and four other buddies had just accompanied Jones to the courthouse’s second floor, where Jones was paying a $75 fine for speeding.

A small fine — but a big step, in the opinion of police seeking to curtail dangerous dirt-bike and quad driving they say has begun terrorizing New Haven neighborhoods since spring sprang.

The police launched a crackdown in April. They have fielded complaints from all over town. In one instance, a kid fleeing cops on his dirt bike ran over a 7‑year-old girl standing with her father at a bus stop. But they no longer have permission to chase dirt bikers as they race down streets and on sidewalks and in parks; the fear is that those chases could endanger people more. So they’ve been experimenting with new tactics.

Enter Terrance Jones. The cops identified him as among the top dirt-bike outlaws in town, tearing up streets sometimes in full view of police from Fair Haven to West River. (It’s illegal to ride the vehicles on the streets.)

Two West River walking cops, Carlos Conceicao and Josh Kyle, kept a close eye on Jones, who lives in the neighborhood. They collected eyewitness accounts of Jones’ driving to prepare ​“ghost warrants” of Jones as well as some others. (Read about that in this story.) They visited his house to issue warnings for him to stop breaking the law.To no avail, they said.

Then Conceicao saw this article in the Independent. It featured a photo of the dreadlocked Jones on a green and white dirt bike with an ​“818” decal on the rear. Jones was pictured at a light on Whalley — right before the photographer saw him run a red light, race forward and pop a wheelie in traffic. Conceicao prepared a warrant detailing that incident, reports from other sources about other incidents, and the police’s own observations of Jones’ ​“reckless” driving.

Conceicao wrote about visiting Jones at home, where he found the bike. ​“I advised Jones to stop riding the dirt-bike throughout the neighborhood and he stated he would stop for now, but he would not guarantee that he wouldn’t ride it again on the streets.”

Superior Court Judge Bruce Thompson last week signed a warrant charging Jones with reckless driving. Conceicao and Kyle went to his house to serve him. The charge carries penalties of up to 30 days in jail and a $300 fine.

“He saw us. He ran inside the house,” Conceicao said. ​“I knocked on the front door. I kept banging. ​‘Hey Jones, come outside. I want to talk to you.”

Eventually Jones emerged. Conceicao arrested him, put him in handcuffs.

Conceicao said Jones started yelling: ​“What the fuck? Fuck you motherfuckers. I’m gonna get on that dirt bike again! I don’t care.”

What Should Young People Do?

Jones, who’s 25, was more compliant when he showed up to face Judge Thompson Thursday morning.

First he met with Assistant State’s Attorney Mike Denison. A former Guilford cop, Denison said he’s familiar with the outbreak of ATV madness each spring, and the danger it poses to the public.

“Is it dangerous? Absolutely,” Denison said before court began.

Jones, who showed to Courtroom B in blue work clothes for his laundry position at a rehabilitation home, told Denison, ​“Yup. I’m not going to give you a hard time,” according to Denison. Denison agreed to knock the charge down to speeding. (The reckless driving charge requires proving that the driver had endangered someone’s safety besides his own.)

When they appeared before the judge, Denison successfully requested that Jones pay $75. Jones pleaded guilty. Then, accompanied by five buddies, went upstairs to pay.

He repeatedly declined to answer questions from the Independent. Muhammad, a member of the entourage, did speak. He expressed outrage at the crackdown.

Muhammad (pictured) said he has owned dirt bikes since he was 12 and living in Atlantic City. He rode them there. He rode them on city streets and in Edgewood Park when he moved to Westville, near Forest Road. No one bothered him, he said.

Now he lives closer to downtown. And the cops have cracked down. He claimed that this year he has kept the dirt bike in his basement as a result. And he’s not happy about it.

He noted that people can legally buy ATVs on Whalley Avenue. He also noted that unlike New Haven, the suburbs have trails for people to ride.

“Why do you sell them? They’re making money to send people to jail,” said Muhammad, who’s 19. ​“You work. You save up your money to buy what you want. You can’t even ride your dirt bike.”

“It keeps you out of trouble. It’s something to do — riding bikes, having fun,” he said. ​“In New Haven’s there’s not a lot of activity the youth can get into.”

“They’re cracking down on everybody,” he complained.

Muhammad was asked about the rider who recently ran over the 7‑year-old girl.

“Accidents happened,” he responded. ​“There are a couple of knuckleheads who can’t ride dirt bikes. That doesn’t mean you ban dirt bikes.”

Muhammad’s perspective didn’t sway Sgt. Anthony Zona, one of the architects of the police crackdown. He called the legal-sale and suburban-trail arguments a ​“cop out.”

“It’s against the law. Don’t do it. It’s very simple,” Zona said. ​“Or buy a pick-up truck, strap them into the pickup truck, and if somebody gives them permission to ride it on their property out in the sticks, by all means have fun. In the city it’s too dangerous. They’re doing wheelies through the streets, riding through parks, tearing up the parks.

“We’re going to continue to enforce the laws. It’s a quality of life issue that a lot of people are concerned about. What happens if one these kids running through the park hits one of these 10-year-old kids playing baseball? What happens when they seriously injure one of these kids, and somebody takes the law into their own hands? We don’t want people doing that.”

Zona also said many of the riders the police target don’t buy their dirt bikes. They steal them.

Zona was asked if a judge’s $75 fine will act a deterrent.

That may not sound like a lot of money, he responded, but it requires a trip to court. It also puts the rider on notice that bigger fines await if he persists.

“It’s about correcting when somebody does something wrong. Hopefully he’s correcting,” Zona said of Jones. ​“If it isn’t corrected, hopefully he comes before the same prosecutor and judge the next time.”